Class 
Book 




Si 
_JL 



THE WAR STORY 

OF 

DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 




DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

CAPTAIN GROTON FOOTBALL ELEVEN. 



THE WAR STORY 

OF 
DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 



BY 

HIS FATHER 

.AS 



FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION 



NEW YORK & LONDON 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
1917 



^ 









CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. 
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. 



TO 

HIS MANY FRIENDS IN RECOGNITION OF THE 

JOY THEY BROUGHT HIM IN LIFE AND 

OF THEIR ABIDING LOVE 

AND LOYALTY 



FOREWORD 

APART from my affection for my son I 
have been impelled to compile this 
short memoir by my pride in his very gallant 
record, and by a desire to tell his friends, 
whom I believe to be interested, the details 
of his two years' war service. 

A soldier comrade of his writes me, on 
learning that the manuscript is finished: 
"May I read it? I knew that he kept a 
diary and know some of his experiences, 
though there are some parts that I do not 
know. And as a record of good work finely 
done your book will be worth reading." To 
make it worth reading and make it worthy 
of him has been my rather ambitious pur- 
pose. I can only approximately accomplish 
this. But I shall have given him my homage 
and shall have done for him all that is left 
for me to do since he has gone " over the 

top," never to return. 

Louis Starr. 
123, Pall Mall, 

London, 191 7. 



THE WAR STORY 

OF 

DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

i 

DILLWYN'S Groton and Harvard days, 
when his football achievements kept 
him much in evidence, are even better known 
to his friends than to me. To this part of his 
life, therefore, I shall not refer, but pass at 
once to the two years preceding his very 
gallant ending and tell how he fulfilled his 
early promise of conspicuous courage, and 
kept the lovable sweetness of disposition, we 
all knew, through the hardships and annoying 
petty trials of active service, both as an 
orderly with the ambulance corps and as a 
soldier in the field. The intimate details and 
his impressions are taken from his letters and 
his diary, which he kept with great regularity 
while on duty. 

The outbreak of the great European war 
on August 4th, 1 9 14, found Dillwyn at Isles- 

B 



2 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

boro, Maine, toward the end of a Summer 
holiday. He was interested at once, and we 
talked of the invasion of Belgium and dis- 
cussed whether the United States could 
honourably remain neutral, or was in duty 
bound to interfere on the side of the Allies. 
He did not at first realize that American 
ideals demanded and American safety re- 
quired the overthrow of grasping German 
tyranny. A state of mind quite natural con- 
sidering our isolation from the struq-ale. For 
the war seemed very distant, if not almost un- 
believable, in this island colony where all is 
very peaceful, with little change from year to 
year, and where his thoughts were tempted 
to the out-door sports he so thoroughly en- 
joyed. Still, a fuller appreciation soon began 
to dawn. Goingr to New York late in August 
he came in closer touch with, and heard more 
about foreign affairs, and on Labour Day, 
while lying on the sands at Long Beach read- 
ing the war reports, he suddenly told the 
friends who were with him that he had de- 
termined " to see the war." 

With this object he went to the office of 
his friend Elliot Bacon to offer his services 
to the " American Ambulance " in which his 
father, Robert Bacon, was interested. There 



S.S. "HAMBURG" 3 

he happened to meet George Ball who told 
him of a position which had been offered him 
on the S.S. " Hamburg," recently fitted out 
as a Red Cross ship, but as he was unable 
to accept it, he would ask to have it trans- 
ferred. This Dillwyn accepted, and soon 
received the appointment. 

The " Hamburg," repainted white with a 
huge red cross on either side, was bound for 
France with a corps of Doctors and Nurses 
and a complement of medical supplies. After 
many postponements she left New York on 
September 13th for a memorable voyage. 
First, she was delayed several days at Sandy 
Hook to discharge her German crew which 
had been replaced by a make-shift lot of white 
and black substitutes. After she really got off, 
the latter were found to be entirely untrained 
hands, and besides soon began a racial con- 
test which from time to time broke into 
actual combats. The Germans, also, before 
departing had tampered with the ship's 
machinery and thrown overboard many ne- 
cessary tools ; so altogether it became a 
question whether port could ever be reached. 
Under these conditions, the voyage must 
have been most uncomfortable, but Dillwyn 
writes of it : 



4 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

" I was one of the crew. At first, I slept 
in a cabin with two pretty queer men, and 
ate with the roughest you ever saw. The 
food was awful. However, I made friends 
with Mr. Delaney, the chief engineer, and 
after a few days he gave me a cabin to 
myself and I had the freedom of the ship. 
Some of the doctors were fine, and when 
there was nothing doing we got up poker 
games." 

The "Hamburg" called at Falmouth on 
September 24th, and Dillwyn left her with 
the full acquiescence of Delaney and with a 
written certificate as to ability and character 
from him. 

From Falmouth he went directly to London, 
and a few days later met Walter Oakman,* 

* Walter G. Oakman, Junr., Harvard '07, has since 
been very closely associated with Dillwyn. He was with 
him in the Ambulance Corps and in Flanders with the 
Armoured Cars, and they were both promoted at the 
same time. Shortly after receiving his commission in the 
R.N.V.R. he was ordered back to Flanders during the 
German effort to reach Calais. Later, he joined the 
Guards, preceded him to France and returned severely 
wounded before Dillwyn had finished his training at 
Windsor. He was a most steadfast friend and a thorough 
soldier, and won Dillwyn's admiration by his great 
bravery. 



NORTON'S AMBULANCE CORPS 5 

and, through him, Richard Norton, who was re- 
cruiting and collecting cars for his " American 
Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps." His 
offer of service met with ready acceptance 
for a position combining ambulance driver 
and orderly, requiring, in addition to the 
ordinary qualifications of a chauffeur some 
knowledge of "first aid," and the proper 
methods of handling the wounded. With 
such training and the getting together of his 
outfit he was engaged until October 19th — 
little more than a month after sailing from 
home — when he left London for the object 
of his desire — France and the front. The 
car in which he ran to Folkestone and shipped 
for Boulogne was a gift from Alan Loney* 
to the corps. It was a powerful Mercedes 
fitted with a large ambulance body, and, on 
reaching France, was transferred with its 
crew to the British Red Cross, which was in 
need of a large ambulance to make up a 
unit. In consequence Dillwyn, with his usual 
good fortune, began to see service without 

* Loney subsequently lost his life when the " Lusitania " 
was torpedoed. His death was deeply regretted, as his 
work with the wounded was excellent and his generosity 
in gifts of ambulance cars beyond praise, as were also 
his successful efforts in cultivating a like liberality in 
others. 



6 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

the delay which fell to the lot of the other 
cars making up the bulk of Norton's corps. 

During the first week he was kept on duty 
at Boulogne, every day and sometimes late 
into the night, carrying to hospitals the 
wounded arriving by railway train from the 
battlefields near Arras, and Lille. These 
men brought various wonderful yarns. For 
example, he quotes in his notes; " They tell 
us fighting the worst of the war; Allies out- 
numbered ten to one ; German artillery fine, 
but rifle fire no »"ood, our men killine three 
to one." Also, "war will be over by Christ- 
mas," and " Indian troops carry German heads 
as souvenirs." 

His diary may now take up the account of 
his daily work. 

October 2 jtk, 1 9 1 4. " Lined up at 9 a.m. for 
call to St. Omer. Started at 1.30 p.m., arrived 
at 4.30, having stopped several times on way. 
Saw transports, aeroplanes, and English 
cavalry. Met other ambulances at Cattle- 
market. Now under strict orders, many sleep- 
ing in cars." 

Octobci- 2§th. " Up at 7 a.m. Orders to 
leave at 2 p.m. Watched target practice and 
walked through Park and Cathedral, which 



MOVING WOUNDED 7 

is very old with quaint statues, some of 
thirteenth century; people at prayers all 
dressed in black. Left St. Omer at 3 p.m., 
arrived Bailleul at 6 o'clock. Were put up 
at French house and given tea before going 
to bed; family, refugees from Lille with nine 
children, refused payment for accommodation. 
Germans had been in same house on Oct- 
ober 10th; reported to have behaved well." 

October 29th. " Walked about town and 
met wounded Indians walking from one 
hospital to another. In afternoon took squad 
of Indians to railway station; no officials 
about, so managed them myself. Heard 
heavy gun-firing during day and one bomb 
dropped by station — no damage." 

October ^otk. "Up at 6 a.m., breakfast in 
car in front of station. At 9 got off and ran 
to Armentieres. Guns, a quarter of a mile 
away, firing at rate of thirty times a minute. 
Saw aeroplanes being bombarded by Ger- 
mans; could see smoke puffs of bursting 
shells apparently a mile in air but wide of 
mark. Moved ' sitting-up ' cases. After 
lunch, worked at car. Ready to start at 
2 o'clock, but waited about until 6 and then 
started for Nieppe and ' Plug Street' (Ploeg- 
steert). Took badge off arm, put lights out, 



8 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

and got within seventy yards of firing line 
with guns behind ; battlefield a level plain. 
Heard that our line was too thin and not 
enough English artillery. Germans out- 
numbering British had broken through one 
sector. Took back ' sitting-up ' cases to Bail- 
leul, arriving at midnight." 

October 31st. " Many French troops pass- 
ing through town. Firing at aeroplane 
frightens Indian wounded, who think hos- 
pital is being bombarded. Rumours of 
Germans entering Nieppe and town being 
evacuated. Heavy tiring all day; enemy 
advance. Cleared hospital." 

November 1st. " Left at 9 a.m. for Neuve 
Eglise, being near line and enemy advancing, 
our men retreating. Wounded — first bad 
cases — brought from field by horse-vans and 
we took them to hospital. Later, ordered to 
Locre. Saw cavalry on road and at dusk, 
just as we were rounding a bend, a shell 
burst fifty or sixty yards in front of us — two 
gunners and four horses killed. Germans, 
having range, another shell burst near us 
and troops began to retire. Picked up 
wounded at small village near by and started 
for home " (Bailleul). "Passed thousands of 
French infantry and English cavalry and 



PARIS 9 

artillery — all cheerful — probably an army 
corps in all. Were checked often by blocks, 
and by our wounded begging" us to stop or 
to go slowly." 

For the next fortnight the diary shows, as 
he tersely puts it, " nothing doing." There 
seems to have been an interruption of work, 
perhaps because there was little fighting going 
on, and he motored back to Boulogne, then 
to Doullens — rejoining Norton's corps — and 
finally to Paris. There he found everything 
"shut up, no street lamps lighted at night, 
but search-lights playing." When not on the 
road he passed the time walking in the 
country, looking about any little town he 
happened to be in and visiting neighbouring 
hospitals and cathedrals. He was back in 
Doullens on the 14th, eager for work, but 
had no calls. Of this day, he writes, " Walked 
in morning; after lunch went to a coursing 
meet," and of the next, " Walked in morning, 
explored a cave in afternoon. Saw Ned 
Toland who is working at the Harjes Hos- 
pital near Montdidier. He says some of the 
wounds are awful." 

Then follow three more days of idleness. 
On one of these he motored to the east of 



io DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

Doullens. " Many troops about quaint vil- 
lages, saw trenches and dug-outs, latter had 
sleeping shelves about two feet from floor, 
straw for bedding. Some had water covering^ 
floor. Men in these trenches, French; all 
seemed very cold; gave my gloves to one. 
While here our big guns began firing a 
hundred yards in front of us and German 
guns from a wood to the North." On another 
day, " Ran towards Arras, see German shells 
falling in field to right. Entered Beaumetz 
and gave soldiers cigarettes. Heavy can- 
nonading. Stopped by officer as we were 
out of our army division and pass-word 
' Arras ' didn't go, but got through and 
directly behind French artillery, guns also 
firing overhead on right. French troops en- 
trenched along road. Went six kilometres 
towards Arras from Beaumetz before turning 
back and met three thousand or more Arab 
cavalry coming over hill on white ponies, 
prancing and full of life. Men were dressed 
in varied colours, some with bright red 
cloaks; they formed in fours as they came 
to the road, right upon us, and rode to the 
north. Arrived Doullens at dusk." 

November igt/i. ''Carried wounded from 
citadel to railway station." 



CHANCE TO ENLIST n 

This was followed by another interval — 
five days— of "killing time," the only note 
worth mentioning being a visit toa" French 
hospital ; no heating. Wounded lying on straw 
in awful cold." 

November 2\th. " Cleared wounded to rail- 
way station, moving forty-seven ' sitting-up ' 
cases in all, carried one man on back about 
a hundred yards up track." 

November 2 $tk. "Moved ten wounded to 
station. Ordered to go to Albert and arrived 
3.30 p.m. All houses near church down and 
many burnt. Absolute ruin for blocks; people 
looking very poor and starved. Saw Ger- 
mans shelling French aeroplane. Home 
(Doullens) at 5 o'clock. Captain Moore- 
Brabazon here, reports it quiet all along the 
front. Moore-Brabazon is in Royal Flying 
Corps and offers to try to get Oakman and 
me into the Armoured Motor Car Divi- 



sion. 



This promise was so promptly fulfilled that 
in ten days a letter arrived with instructions 
to apply for enlistment. In the meantime 
Dillwyn with a single ambulance was trans- 
ferred to Montdidier and did rather more 
work with the wounded. The only matter 



12 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

of interest he records is that after o-oinQf to 
Duvy for monthly passports "got lost on 
way back and nearly went into the German 
lines." 

On the receipt of the welcome letter, 
December 5th, he and Oakman immediately 
began preparations for leaving France. On 
the 9th he picked Oakman up at Compiegne 
and ran back through Montdidier to Doullens, 
where they saw their Chief and obtained their 
release. Next day they started for Boulogne, 
arrived at 10 a.m. and caught the boat just 
in time. Reaching London early in the 
afternoon they went directly to Wormwood 
Scrubbs, the depot of the Armoured Cars and 
made application for enlistment. They were 
accepted and ordered to report for duty at 
10 o'clock on the following morning. Thus 
ends his connection with Norton's corps. 

Though always enthusiastic about any pro- 
ject that promised activity, I think he never 
particularly fancied ambulance work. I know 
that from the very first he disliked the idea 
of being protected by a red cross on his 
sleeve, while so many about him were en- 
listed to do soldiers' work. Still, he regretted 
leaving Richard Norton. He had seen the 
corps' steady development under its able 



ENLISTMENT 13 

founder and realized the importance and grow- 
ing scope of its beneficent work. Further, his 
short two months' experience with the wounded 
had shown him that the German methods of 
making war were so brutal and foul that he 
came to long, as he said later, " to get at 
them with cold steel." And the conviction 
grew strong within him that the place for a 
free man was on the side of the Allies 
fighting for liberty, justice, civilization — the 
world's cause; and he began to feel, too, the 
importance of the issue to his own country. 
Consequently he eagerly embraced the first 
opportunity to enlist. 



II 

THE Armoured Motor Car Division at- 
tached, strangely enough, to the Royal 
Naval Air Service, comprised 23 squadrons 
of 15 cars each; 12 light and 3 heavy. 
The light cars were of Rolls Royce and 
Lanchester makes, having about 40-horse- 
power engines and with somewhat boat- 
shaped bodies, sharp in front and broad 
behind, and protected by § inch armour 
plates. The light cars carried a Maxim gun 
and three men; the heavy — really 9-ton 
trucks or lorries — with square armoured bodies 
and American chassis, mounted one 3-pound 
gun, and carried six men, and it was to the 
crew of one of these that Dillwyn was ultim- 
ately detailed. The rank and file of the 
division, one of which he became by enlist- 
ment, was composed of men presumed to be 
more or less expert mechanicians, manually 
more skilled and capable than the ordinary 
recruit, and all held the rank of Petty Officers, 
a status somewhat above the lowest, though 
of little moment as far as discipline and duties 

14 



ARMOURED CAR TRAINING 15 

were concerned. Most of his companions 
were professional chauffeurs or working en- 
gineers. He found them " ^ood fellows " and 
liked their rough but hearty friendship. 

Such were the conditions under which he 
beean training on December 12th. He had 
to be out of bed by 6.30 in the morning and 
was on duty from 8 o'clock until 5 in the 
afternoon. These nine hours, with an interval 
for the mid-day meal, were occupied in squad- 
drilline in formations and with arms, as each 
man carried a rifle and bayonet; in range 
shooting; route marching; manoeuvring with 
the light and heavier cars; Maxim drill with 
practice in taking apart and reassembling 
these guns; semaphore practice; lectures on 
practical military subjects, and various odds 
and ends, such as unpacking and cleaning 
motor-cars and clearing up garages and yards. 
At one time he was detailed as P.O. (Petty 
Officer) in Charge to take eleven men to 
Southwold, Suffolk, where they remained 
two weeks, in billets, three or four men sleep- 
ing in one small room, and with days passed 
in route marching and shooting on a range 
with Maxim and rifle. All day long he was 
in the open air and exercising, and, as he 
writes, " got full of health." Later he was 



16 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

sent with a squad to the Talbot factories 
where they both worked on motor-cars and 
mounted omard. 

So the time passed busily until March ist, 
19 1 5, when he left London with Squadron 
No. 2 for the front. This squadron, com- 
manded by the Duke of Westminster, was 
composed of twelve light and three heavy cars, 
several supply cars and twenty-four motor- 
cycles intended for dispatch work. Every 
car was designated by some name, Dillwyn's 
being called the " Black Joke." The per- 
sonnel was eight officers and 120 men. 

At Wormwood Scrubbs there is a long 
lane running from the Headquarters build- 
ings to the high-road. Down this lane we 
saw them start on their journey. Advancing 
towards us in single file and accurately spaced, 
with the men in their smart navy-blue uni- 
forms, with the navy flag flying from a staff 
in the front of each steel-clad car and with 
the wicked-looking muzzles of the guns just 
showing, it was a most inspiring spectacle, 
bringing to mind one's idea of old-time 
knights in armour going into battle. They 
came swiftly, wheeled to the right on reach- 
ing the road, and in a few moments were 
well on their way and lost to sight. 



TO FLANDERS 17 

The first stop was Cowden, Kent. Here 
they went into billets, had target-practice 
with Maxim gun and 3-pounder, and were 
inspected by the Duke. At 10.30 a.m. on 
the 5th, the whole squad started for Dover, 
but Dillwyn's 3-pounder lorry met with a 
mishap, was much delayed in the righting, 
and did not arrive until 2 a.m. on the follow- 
ing morning, having to make most of the 
run during the night, which was " beautifully 
moon-light." By 2 o'clock on the same day, 
March 6th, the heavy cars were loaded on a 
transport. She sailed at 5 p.m., had a smooth 
trip, reached the dock at Dunkirk at 5 a.m. 
next day, and by 7 o'clock all were disem- 
barked. 

Through the kindness of the First Sea Lord, 
Admiral Lord Fisher, his Mother and I were 
on the pier at Dover to see the departure. 
The transport was small and a mere unpainted 
shell of a vessel. She had no upper deck, being 
quite open to the sky above the main deck, 
on which the tarpaulin-covered cars stood, 
and was entirely without shelter or accommo- 
dation for passengers. However, the men 
accepted what we thought their hard lot 
without complaint, and when their ship cast 
off, sang and cheered in the delight of at 

c 



iS DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

last being on the way to the real thing. To 
us, the sight of the ugly vessel slowly 
blundering away and disappearing in the 
gathering darkness was very depressing. 
Taking up the diary again, on 

March Jth. " Went to St. Pol, and on this 
day and the 8th and 9th were on guard duty 
and slept all night on the floor of a dance- 
hall." 

March \oth. "Orders to go to the front 
immediately. Get ammunition, board car, 
and leave at 3 p.m. for Merville. Passed 
through St. Omer, where I bought three 
slices of bread for a shilling; then through 
Aire, and reach Merville at 11 p.m. Find 
town the headquarters of British. Big battle 
going on, and many wounded coming in." 

March 1 ith. " Best day so far. Up at 
4.30 a.m.; had coffee, and after mending car, 
which had bad brake trouble, started for 
Armentieres. Taking wrong road, at first, 
had to turn back and try again. At Armen- 
tieres met many soldiers who wished us luck 
and told us to 'give it to them.' Our job 
was to shoot up a barn occupied by Germans 
near Laventie. Arrived at Laventie about 
1 1 o'clock, ran car along narrow road, pass- 



BATTLE OF NEUVE CHAPELLE 19 

ing many batteries, and stopped near a 
corner where guns roared all about us. Ten 
minutes later German shell struck and burst 
in the road twenty yards away throwing 
stones and dirt over car, and after a few 
minutes another broke further away, and 
still another, knocking down two men. We 
could hear them coming through the air and 
tell by their whistle whether they were 
eoinof over us or were about to strike near. 
Too foggy to find range of our barn, so re- 
turned to Laventie. After lunch advanced 
again, the Duke coming in our car, and 
passed over spot where first shell struck and 
made a hole in road over three feet deep. It 
had been filled with stones, but we sank in 
about a foot. Went further along road, with 
an English officer guiding, and under rifle 
fire, had action. First shot going just over 
target, others striking. Returned safely to 
Laventie though exposed to shrapnel fire; 
saw big shells bursting, but not very near. 
Through it all the behaviour of men fine. 
After securing billets visited Armoured Train 
and met gunners, who took me aboard. When 
they fired 4.7 and 6-inch guns, discharges 
rocked the whole car." 

March 12th. "Out of bed at 6.30 a.m., 



20 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

hear shells whistling over our quarters and 
many bursting in town, four people killed. 
The Duke came at 10 o'clock and called us 
out. Went to same place as yesterday. 
German artillery trying to find batteries be- 
hind us and shells were dropping fast, could 
hear shells from our own 1 5-inch guns pass- 
ing overhead. Went into action, firing twenty- 
three rounds, shelling a small village, and 
enabling our infantry to occupy it thirty 
minutes afterwards. In afternoon took up 
another position, being ditched on the way 
owing to hurry, and fired eighty-two shells. 
Big action going on with incendiary bombs 
and many shells. Barn and house burning 
near. Getting out of ditch were followed by 
bursting shrapnel." 

March i$tk. " Hot day! Up at 3 a.m. and 
on guard. Shells still passing over and falling 
in town. The Duke came at 9 o'clock to 
take us out. Went in same direction as 
yesterday afternoon but to more advanced 
post. Heavy fighting going on. Took up 
position 200 yards south of cross-roads at 
Fauquissart, behind some buildings which 
were half battered down. Got range of house 
occupied by Germans who were holding up 
our advance and fired forty-two shells all 



ACTION AT FAUOUISSART 21 

telling and driving them out. They were shot 
down by our infantry, who occupied what was 
left of the building a short time afterward. 
Enemy artillery found us, and their shells 
began dropping all about us; also under rifle 
fire, and had to keep cover. Shells were 
striking ten yards away in the mud and one 
splashed water into the car. Finally obliged 
to back away, as road too cramped to turn; 
moved very slowly and it seemed we were 
going to get it sure — close squeeze! Got 
back to Laventie at 1 1 o'clock and in after- 
noon " (striking contrast) " painted car and 
had my hair cut." 

The Armoured Car actions of these three 
days were a part of the battle of Neuve 
Chapelle,the object of which the diary suggests 
"was to straighten out the Allies' line be- 
tween Armentieres and La Bassee," and "it 
was reported that eight thousand men had been 
killed in the action on a front of six miles." 

March i^th. " Laventie subjected to bom- 
bardment. Firing, at first, seemed distant. 
Soon drew near and bombs began bursting 
in street. Went into house that was struck; 
found people inside quite unconscious of it; 
the shell had only knocked out some bricks 
at the top and scattered shrapnel bullets over 



22 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

the upper floor. Women of town ran about 
seeking- shelter in cellars." 

The following day the " Black Joke" was 
relieved and went with its crew back to 
Dunkirk for a rest. Dillwyn makes a circum- 
stance of getting half a day off, and the re- 
mainder of the time was occupied in guard 
duty, in cleaning and tuning up the car, look- 
ing after its armour plating and in manoeuvres. 
He took, with the other petty officers, his 
turn at cooking, slept where he could find a 
roof to cover him, often on a bare floor or in 
a hay loft ; notes the fact that once he was for- 
tunate enough to be able to steal some straw 
for bedding, and on the 24th that he " slept 
in a bed for the first time in eighteen days." 
Again he tells of the luxury of having a bath 
in a tub, though taken practically in public 
and in company with a number of other men. 
Making little account of the work, hardship 
and bad weather, he writes more fully of the 
beauty of moon-lit nights, of wonderful days 
and glorious rainbows and sunsets. 



&' 



By March 24th he was again near the 
front in Armentieres and experienced an- 
other trifling and unexpected bombardment 



ACTION ON LILLE ROAD 



-o 



of which he says, " Strange sensation when 
everything quiet, and all of a sudden hear 
the sound of a coming bomb and then an 
explosion." On the 25th there was a parade 
of the armoured cars, reviewed by the General, 
who found everything quite satisfactory. Also 
the word was passed that they were going 
into action very soon. The idea being as 
follows: "Take up position on Lille road 
about one hundred yards behind own trenches. 
Light cars carrying Maxim guns to sweep 
the enemy's trenches about two hundred 
yards away. Heavier car with the 3-pounder 
to batter down, at longer range, a house oc- 
cupied by snipers." 

March ijtk. " Roused at 6.30 a.m. by 
woman coming into our sleeping-shed with 
coffee while we were still wrapped in our 
blankets. Beautiful day. Had practice with 
cars. Many aeroplanes about, one German 
machine came over us but was driven back 
by one shot. Much firing of anti-aircraft guns 
during morning and could see dozens of shells 
bursting; in the air. In afternoon were told 
to get some sleep and I did, sitting in chair. 
At 4 o'clock had tea. Thinking of going out 
gives me the same feeling as before a foot- 
ball match. Start at 7.30 p.m. in beauti- 



24 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

ful moonlight, go slowly along road toward 
Lille and after half an hour's run come to 
Chapelle d'Armentieres and a cross road. Go 
down this and leave car and clear away trees, 
helped by Tommies and Hussars. Walk 
further down road with Officer Commanding 
and Oakman, where we were to take up 
position later, about two hundred and fifty 
yards from German trenches. Hear shots from 
snipers and a few bullets whistle overhead, 
otherwise very quiet. Saw a number of star 
shells and could clearly see trenches. Came 
back to car and tried to sleep ; later got some 
coffee and a little sleep in a roundhouse." 

March 2%th. " Off at 4 a.m., in beautiful 
morning, for selected spot. Took position 
and began action, firing forty-two shots at 
snipers' house with little reply, though we 
expected a lot ; Maxims keeping the enemy 
in their trenches. Think we withdrew too 
quickly, our O.C. becoming excited. Would 
have done more had we stayed longer. Went 
back to Chapelle d'Armentieres for break- 
fast and I looked over a ruined church I saw 
in the moonlight last night. Rested remainder 
of day." 

On March 29th, he took part in a small 



FATIGUE DUTY 25 

action from a hamlet near Chapelle d' Armen- 
tieres, his gun firing seventeen shots. He was 
in another action on April 2nd. For this he 
started from Armentieres to take up position 
at 10 o'clock in the evening, reached the firing 
line in an hour and walked along a commun- 
icating trench to get a clearer view of a house 
which was to be the target. Afterward the 
whole crew, including the Duke, sat up in 
their car until 4.30 a.m. " Rifle bullets were 
buzzing about. Some struck very near. The 
Duke said he couldn't understand us coming 
so far for this. Began action at 3 o'clock 
and fired twenty-eight rounds. Could have 
done much more had we kept up longer, but 
we were ordered to cease firing." 

Next day they were relieved and returned 
to Dunkirk. 

Then followed a little more than a month 
of routine fatigue duty. He "returned to 
Laventie," where he " found church had been 
practically destroyed since we were last here, 
many Jack Johnsons having knocked down 
tower and neighbouring houses; village prac- 
tically deserted," and with the car moved 
about from place to place, near Armentieres, 
Merville, Aubers, Fleurbaix and Bailleul. 



26 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

During this interval his diary shows that he 
had more time to himself. He occupied much 
of this leisure in walking among the trenches, 
and getting as close to the firing line as pos- 
sible, often being in areas of German gun- 
fire. In this way he must have improved, 
greatly, his general knowledge of the fighting 
and of the battle ground about Aubers, Neuve 
Chapelle and la Bassee. Several times a 
village, where he happened to be billeted, 
came under bombardment without much 
harm being done, and the experience be- 
came common enough to elicit no more com- 
ment than a passing mention. 

May 6tk. "In Laventie. We are going 
into action from the same road we took for 
attack near Fauquissart. In the evening, 
carry ammunition to firing place. Rifle bullets 
whizzing about." 

On May 7th the order was cancelled, but 
on the 8th " at 9 p.m. started for line, reached 
first houses of Fauquissart and backed up car 
on right side of road. With poles we cut 
from trees, carried two boxes of ammunition 
farther along road and hid them behind a 
ruined house; also moved shells we had 
brought yesterday. Rifle bullets striking fast 



PUSH ON LILLE 27 

and many star shells showing. Plan of general 
attack was for Indians to march from right, 
and 8th Corps from left and advance to 
Aubers, and 7th Corps assisting, drive Ger- 
mans back and enter Lille early in afternoon; 
50,000 casualties expected. Slept in car." 

May gtk. " Up at 2 a.m. Started for firing 
front but car was driven too near edge of 
road and slid into deep ditch. Every one 
disgusted with prospect of missing the most 
important engagement we've had. Took gun 
and ammunition off car and hid them in cellar 
of partly ruined house, where we later found 
shelter. I went up to the top story and saw 
everything. Our guns started at 5 o'clock. 
The bombardment was tremendous and I 
could see the shells dropping in the German 
trenches and the shrapnel bursting over them. 
The Germans soon began to reply. Their 
shells seemed to be mostly directed towards 
Aubers, but a few struck in front of us, and 
later they sent over about twenty 6-inch shells 
which hit house and fell in road. Car sur- 
rounded by shells, but not touched except by 
small splinter which hardly marked it. By 
10 a.m. fire slackened and we began righting 
car. Finished by 5 o'clock in afternoon, and 
we replaced gun and ammunition. During 



28 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

the evening, enemy's bombardment was re- 
newed and there was considerable Maxim 
firing. Tried to sleep, but at midnight were 
recalled and reached Laventie at 2 a.m. The 
whole action was given up as German posi- 
tions were too strong, very heavily manned 
and too costly to take. Our crew praised for 
righting and bringing back car, gun, and 
ammunition." 

There is one page of the diary which 
should be quoted here as it illustrates so well 
his real sweetness of disposition, and his 
uniform inclination to be just and avoid con- 
troversies. Evidently after some slight dis- 
agreement with one of his fellows he inserts 
what he thinks of him and then : " I suppose 
I'm a chump for writing this, but it relieves my 
mind." A few days later he writes: "Here 

and now I take back all I said of . I 

have been with him under fire and he was as 
cool as a cucumber. But I will leave it in 
just to show what a goat I am." 

To go back to the story : 

May 10th. "Got up late and changed 
clothes in field. At noon the Duke came and 
told Oakman and me that we had been pro- 



PROMOTED 29 

moted and were to report in London on 
the 14th." 

On the next day they were sent with car 
and crew to Bethune. Here, living under 
canvas, they were kept — another battle being 
expected — until May 15th, when they were 
relieved, and immediately set out for England 
via Dunkirk, and arrived at mid-day on the 
17th. 

We were taken by surprise when he walked 
into our apartment in London and announced 
that he was to be promoted. He seemed 
rather service worn, but looked hard and fit 
and happy. As was his way, he said little 
about his exploits and nothing of his hard- 
ships and trials. His conversation was about 
his liking for active campaigning and of the 
splendid courage and cheerfulness of the 
British soldier. The Germans he thoroughly 
despised for their barbarous methods, though 
recognizing their organizing and fighting 
qualities, and he spoke of their strength, in 
men and position, on the western front, ex- 
pressing his belief that neither army would 
ever be able really to break the line of the 
other. 

His stay with us was very brief. In ten 



30 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

days he had received his promotion and was 
gazetted Sub-Lieutenant, Royal Navy Vol- 
unteer Reserves, a navy rank corresponding 
with full Lieutenant in the army, and had 
accepted an offer for duty in Gallipoli, where 
there were already two Armoured Car Squad- 
rons. This latter he hailed with oreat ea^er- 
ness, as promising unusual opportunities for 
active service. In the meantime he had pro- 
cured his officer's uniform (khaki now) and 
renewed his kit, and on May 28th was on 
his way to Hythe, to join a detachment of 
Armoured Car men who were there, in re- 
serve, taking Maxim training. 

His Mother and I took a party to spend 
the week-end with him on June 5th at Hythe, 
a quiet out-of-the-way place near Folkestone. 
His fellow officers were not over congenial, 
and his duties occupied only a few of the 
early morning hours, so there was nothing 
to do the rest of the day. He carried a Maxim 
gun lock in his pocket which he took apart 
and put together from time to time, and a 
little book on gunnery which he studied. 
Both in preparation for a proposed examina- 
tion, which, by the way, never came off. He 
was possessed by the idea that months would 
pass before he would be called to active duty, 




DILLWVN PARRISH STARR 

ROYAL NAVY VOLUNTEER RESERVE 
ARMOURED CAR DIVISION. 



TO GALLIPOLI 31 

as his CO. was a firm believer in thorough 
training, and thought no time wasted in ob- 
taining it. His restlessness, however, was 
soon to be relieved, for on the next day an 
order came to report at headquarters, and 
early on the morning of the 7th he, with 
another officer, and a draft of twenty-five 
men, entrained for London, and on the same 
night, for Plymouth, where they took trans- 
port for Gallipoli. 

The following letter to his cousin, Gladys 
Parrish, deals with his departure: 

Plymouth, Jwie gf/i, 191 5. 

" After I took you home last night I went 
to Paddington and the train had left sooner 
than expected. I got hold of the Station 
Master and the Military Authorities, and was 
allowed to go on the newspaper train which 
made no stops and got in fifty minutes after 
the other, which started three hours before. 
The boat is comfortable and full of troops 
and mules, etc. I expect it will be great fun 
on the sea again, and the trip will pass only 
too quickly. The boat is called 'The Manitou ' 
and has been torpedoed once but patched up 
again. 

" Your pipe is a corker, and the cigarettes 



32 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

and tobacco great. I shall remember you 
when I smoke and the good times we have 
had together. Norman Armour, whom I met 
by chance on Monday, sent me a camera and 
films, which I have found in my bag. It was 
mighty nice of him. 

"As far as I can gather from all I hear 
here, the War Office and the Admiralty are 
all up in the air. Things at the Dardanelles 
are not very good, and we have only ad- 
vanced three miles. I believe the War Office 
and the Admiralty are at odds, and that they 
are going to take over our corps into the 
army. Why these men can't all get together 
in a time like this beats me. 

" We start this afternoon, so lots of love 
to you and the family." 



Ill 

THE world realizes now that the Darda- 
nelles expedition was a ghastly blunder, 
which led to the political death of a prominent 
Minister, and the ruin of the military reputa- 
tion of a supposedly great General ; besides 
being attended by the suffering and useless 
slaughter of thousands of the very bravest 
men.* 

Originally a brilliant conception, it failed 
because its poor and hasty planning was still 
more indifferently executed. If a sufficient, 
combined land and sea, force had been des- 
patched at first, the troops might have landed 
without opposition and have paraded to Con- 
stantinople, while the warships engaged the 
only defences there were — those on the 
Eastern coast — so say the experts. But a 
gambler's chance was taken with the fleet 

* Amongst them a friend, Colonel H. J. Johnston, 
D.S.O., was wounded in both legs in the attack after the 
Suvla landing. His men tried to bring him back, but he 
refused to allow them, saying: "No, leave me, take the 
boys first," and the Turks advancing, he has not been 
heard of since. 

D 



34 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

and disastrously failed. Next, came delay in 
transporting soldiers, and the Turks warned 
of coming trouble had time, under their 
German drivers, thoroughly to fortify all of 
the commanding positions on the Peninsula. 
Then came inconceivable muddling with the 
army. How deep this was may be imagined 
when we know that the campaign was directed 
mainly from a distant island and without 
even proper maps of the ground over which 
the troops were engaged. 

The mismanagement and lack of organiza- 
tion and forethought are indicated throughout 
Dillwyn's daily records, which were resumed 
as soon as he was fairly off, and also in his 
letters, written chiefly to his Mother, with 
whom he corresponded with great affection 
and regularity. These continue the story : 

June <$th. "Wrote the family this morning. 
Our transport left Plymouth at 7.10 p.m. 
attended by two torpedo boats, and all lights 
were put out when we reached the open sea." 

The voyage was slow and uneventful. On 
the 14th they touched at Gibraltar, but were 
kept on board; arrived at Malta on the 1 8th 
and at Alexandria on the 21st. 



ALEXANDRIA 35 

Of Malta he writes: " Arrived at 3 a.m., 
was sleeping on deck and woke up surprised 
at seeing a sandy beach and many patrolling 
torpedo boats. Went into splendid harbour 
with white forts and houses built down to 
the sea edge. Soon many natives came about 
the ship and began diving for coins. Went 
on shore and drove about; all most attractive, 
especially the variety and beauty of the 
flowers." 

On reaching Alexandria he found that no 
one either expected the transport nor knew 
what to do with the troops on board of her; 
so he assumed the responsibility of moving 
his own twenty-five men to the Mustapha 
Barracks, and went himself to the Savoy 
Palace Hotel. Then follow days of confu- 
sion and " nothing but bad management. 
Are cabled to come to Gallipoli and then to 
stay where we are." 

His state of mind is shown in the following 
letters: 

Alexandria, July 1st, 191 5. 

" Still in Alexandria and don't see much 
prospect of leaving. If only I could get hold 
of someone to sret me out of this to the front I 
would give a lot. Don't think our O.C. wants 

o 



J 



6 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 



to leave for Gallipoli and has been telling us 
that he has sent cables there, but to-day it 
was found out that none had s^one. We 
men, however, sent one this morning and I 
have written a letter myself to Commander 
Colmore " (his chief). " There seems little 
object in coming all this way to fight and 
then stop in Alexandria all summer. The 
armoured cars are a failure so far as Gallipoli 
is concerned, and have been shipped back as 
there are no roads for them there ; their guns 
and crews, though, have been sent to the 
trenches and have done well at the front." 

On Transport, y^/y 16th, 191 5. 

" I left Alexandria on Sunday night, 
July 14th, thank the Lord, and am now on 
my way to do something, I hope. We have 
had a splendid trip through beautiful islands 
and all has gone well. We expect to be at 
Lemnos to-day at 12 o'clock. The twenty- 
five men are with me. Commander Colmore 
arrived at Alexandria on the 13th and said 
that we were needed badly at Gallipoli. 
Those who have been there seem to think 
that it will take a long time to get through, 
and that it is the same as in France, but no 
one knows what is going on. I have written 



CAPE HELLES 37 

you a lot of letters, but have received none 
from you so far. I got your cable and was 
glad to hear. It 's cooler here now that we 
have left Egypt and I feel much better. 
There are fifteen hundred troops on this 
boat, comprising mostly very young fellows, 
so you can see Germany is not alone in 
taking out the young ones." 

The transport reached Mudros on the 
island of Lemnos on July 16th. Here war- 
vessels and lighters crowded the harbour, all 
was confusion again, and after starting with 
the expectation of going to Tenedos they 
were landed in the evening at Cape Helles. 
He and his men spent the night on the 
wharf and were disturbed in their sleep by 
the Turkish guns shelling the beach close by 
and destroying some ammunition, some of the 
shells going directly over them. In the morn- 
ing he moved his squad to headquarters. 

A letter written about this time gives a 
graphic description of his first experiences: 

Gallipoli : July 21st, 191 5. 

" I arrived at the Peninsula on Sunday 
and came from Mudros on a torpedo boat, 
which was verv swell indeed. This is the 



3 8 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

most wonderful looking place I ever saw, 
the whole ground is covered with dug-outs, 
and even the mules have their little shelters. 
The hill, Achi Baba, is only about three 
miles away, so you can imagine how far we 
have advanced. On the first day of the land- 
ing we were further advanced than we are 
now ; the troops, you see, had no food, water, 
etc., so they had to fall back after the first 
rush. The Turks shell the Peninsula very 
often, but don't do an awful lot of damage. 
The shells are not so large as those in 
France, though there are some that come 
across from Asia that are bigger. They are 
called ' Creeping Carolines,' and there is one 
gun called 'Asiatic Susie.' Nearly every day 
a certain number of casualties are recorded, 
but surprisingly few if you consider that they 
can shell the whole place. 

" On Monday I went to the trenches and 
saw our guns and the men. That is the part 
of this business that is bad. It is frightfully 
hot and the smell from the unburied bodies 
of British and Turks is dreadful. Added to 
all this there are millions of flies, and I saw 
men sleeping with the flies literally crawling 
in their mouths. 

" I go to the trenches to-morrow for three 



BEFORE ACHI BABA 39 

days and expect everything will be O.K. 
My fellow officers here are very nice. 

" I hope we take the blooming hill before 
long, but personally think it will be some 
time. There are no warships about owing to 
submarines." 

On July 22nd he went with his men to 
the trenches and joined No. 10 Armoured 
Car Squadron, on Maxim duty. His time 
was fully occupied now. By day there were 
gun positions to be shifted, perpetual sniping 
to be avoided, and the Turkish artillery 
to be watched as they sent over shells 
from time to time, some exploding close 
to the parapets. By night he was unable 
to take advantage of his good dug-out for 
sleep, as matters became more active, the 
Turks' rapid firing began, and he had to 
be constantly on the alert in case of an at- 
tack. In the early morning, especially, with 
the change of night to day guard, shrapnel 
fire was particularly trying, and his men re- 
quired careful attention to prevent careless 
exposure and casualties. He writes: "No. 1 
gun position is near the sea, and at a free 
moment I started to the beach for a swim, 
but sniper's bullets stopped me." Relief came 



4 o DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

every third day, with return to camp at head- 
quarters. Then he swam often in the sea, 
visited the French camp, where he had 
already made several friends among the 
officers, and amused himself "fishing with 
dynamite," on one occasion very nearly fall- 
ing a victim to a shark. Even at headquarters 
there was little rest, " once a big bomb burst 
in the middle of our camp." 

On August i st he writes by postcard: 

"Well, I am in fine health still. Have 
been in the trenches now six days all told. 
It has been very quiet " (!) " and we don't ex- 
pect anything much for the present. I have 
four guns to take care of up there, with 
twenty-five men, and it takes all my time to 
look after them and I get very little sleep. 
It is very hot, but the swimming is fine when 
we ^et a chance to 2fo in." 

His next letter shows that he was made 
uncomfortable by ill-natured disagreements 
between his superior officers, a condition 
very distasteful to his nature, always averse 
to bickering, but he does not make much of 
this, suggesting more than anything else his 
wish for an American friend. 



CRITICISMS 41 

August 3rd, 19 1 5. 

" Well I am a bit discouraged with the 
organization of my part of the R.N.A.S. 
One of the first things I found out when I 
arrived was that the commander of the 
squadron I am in, No. 10, was having an 
awful row with the higher command of the 
corps, and when I got back to camp from 
the trenches on my first relief I found that 
most of the Armoured Car force had gone, 
leaving only my squadron commander, three 
Sub-Lieutenants, myself, and forty men. We 
are to wait on the Peninsula for the next 
attack, which will be a big one, and then 
No. 10 squad., which has been reduced from 
a hundred to forty men, is going back to 
Alexandria for a rest. The men themselves 
are fine and some of the young officers are 
nice, but I wish I could get with real men 
like some of the army officers I have met in 
the trenches. There is too much quarrel- 
ling among my superiors and too little real 
punch. 

" Now I will tell you my experiences. 
The first three days I was up at the front I 
had one gun position about five yards in 
front of our first line of trenches, and it was 
very exciting. We could only put the gun 



42 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

up at night, and as we were expecting a 
Turkish attack we were kept on the jump. 
Nothing unusual happened, however, except 
a shell which struck about five feet from us 
and knocked the parapet in. No one was 
hurt. There are a lot of dead Turks and 
Tommies, still unburied, some only a few 
feet beyond the parapet. They are all left 
where they fall in an attack, it being impos- 
sible to bring them in on account of snipers. 
The Turks bury their dead in their own 
trenches, but only about a foot deep, and 
sometimes a hand or some part of the body 
can be seen sticking out. 

" By the time you get this letter the attack 
all are talking about will be over, and I hope 
a success. Up to now we have not advanced 
any further than the first day the troops 
landed. If there was any real head with our 
show I should be enjoying myself. My com- 
mander, when a shell came over, the other 
day, grabbed my arm just like a woman 
would. I don't mind it much, but it is a bit 
discouraging. 

" Will you send me out some food by 
parcel post ? Canned peas, Chow-Chow, 
chocolate, anything ; the stuff here is awful." 

In another letter to his cousin he writes: 



IN THE TRENCHES 43 

August ^th, 19 1 5. 

"Well, I have been on the Peninsula for 
about three weeks and am still whole and 
hearty and very strong. 

" I have been up in the trenches nine days 
altogether and the first three were very ex- 
citing, because the Turks were supposed to 
be going to attack. They had gotten 100,000 
men together, with 60,000 reserves, and I 
have just found out that the Pasha called the 
attack off. It was coming on the 23rd last. 
I had a great position in a tunnelled place 
about ten yards in front of our first line of 
trenches, and had they come we would have 
slaughtered them. I had three men with me 
in this place, and also three other guns I was 
supposed to look after. But as a matter of 
fact the men know more about it than I do. 

" Every day we get shells down on us, as 
there is no place that is not under fire. But 
they do surprisingly little harm. Two of my 
pals, that I made on the trip out, have gone 
under, but none of my men, and but three 
wounded of the R.N.A.S. since I have been 
here. A man went mad on the beach to-day, 
and began shooting about, and they had to 
kill him. It's a cheerful life, isn't it? But 
you really take all as a matter of course, and 



44 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

I am quite happy, but would like some 
American friends here. The flies in this 
place are fierce. The evenings and early- 
mornings are wonderful. I sleep out under 
a tree every night, while the rest are in stuffy 
dug-outs. Go up to-morrow for the big attack 
that is supposed to knock the Turks side- 
ways. They say here that it will all be over 
in three weeks after this. The bombard- 
ment is to last three days." 

The attack referred to was planned partly 
to engage the enemy's line and if possible 
push through, but its main object was to 
concentrate the Turks about Achi Baba and 
divert their attention from a new landing in 
force which was to be made simultaneously 
higher up on the west coast of the Peninsula, 
at Suvla Bay. Accordingly on August 5th, 
Dillwyn was ordered to move his guns to 
higher ground in a more advanced position, 
and on the following day the battle began. 

His diary tells of the battle as he saw it : 
August 6th. " About 2 o'clock in the after- 
noon our ships and monitors began to shell 
the enemy on the heights. Most wonderful 
sight. At 3.15 my guns opened and fired 



ATTACK ON ACHI BABA 45 

seven hundred rounds each before the in- 
fantry left their trenches at 3.40. They 
advanced through an embrasure, the whole 
line of bayonets gleaming in the sun. Some 
fell as they stepped out, many as they got 
near objective, Turkish shrapnel being well 
directed; the few remaining fell back." 

August ytk. "After quiet night, start bom- 
barding at 8.10 a.m. and continue until 10.40. 
I fire No. 4 gun. In face of heavy fire our 
men go out in single file this time. Many 
fell at one spot near our parapet ; some 
reached the Turkish trench and bending 
over seemed to go in head first; a few 
took cover behind trees. Saw one of them 
leave shelter, and help a wounded pal in. 
Could plainly see Turks — big strong looking 
men — working and walking in their reserve 
trenches, and trained my guns on them at 
thousand yards range. Soon they advanced 
in mass formation to counter attack and I 
put two guns on them and fired a thousand 
rounds into their ranks. Still they came on 
and drove our too few men out of the trench 
they had taken. Then their advance stopped. 
In afternoon I sniped them as they repaired 
the parapet of their recaptured trench. All 
day could hear sound of guns from Suvla." 



46 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

The after impressions of the battle are 
given in a later letter: 

August \&th, 1 91 5. 

''Well, the attack has been made and was 
a complete failure here. Almost four thousand 
men went out and very few came back. Some 
monitors and ships bombarded Achi Baba 
for two hours. The Turks during this moved 
down into a gully and came back after it to 
their second line and massed four deep to 
meet our men. I was on higher ground with 
four guns and could clearly see our charges 
of the afternoon of the 6th and the morning 
of the 7th. The men went out in a hail of 
bullets and it was a wonderful sight to see 
them. Many of them fell close to our para- 
pets, though a good number reached the 
Turkish trenches, there to be killed. On the 
morning of the 7th the Turks made a counter 
attack and drove our men out of the lightly 
held trenches they had taken. Our guns, 
fortunately, took a lot of them, my two guns 
fired a thousand rounds into their closely 
formed mass. Three hundred of our men 
were lost in a trench that they had advanced 
into, and I saw three wounded men behind a 
tree in front of the enemy's line who could 



SUVLA LANDING 47 

not be brought in, and many dead lying on 
the ground between the lines. 

" Matters went as badly as possible at the 
new landing at Suvla. Losses at the landino- 
itself were almost nothing. The troops easily 
could have gone directly across the Peninsula 
and cut off Achi Baba. But after eoincr in 
five miles without opposition they got thirsty 
and couldn't get water, so retired. They hold 
a strip of the coast about a mile deep. Lost 
thousands of men in securing it, and now the 
Turks are busy digging themselves in, and 
again it will be trench warfare. This means 
that all is up. Two generals have been sent 
back to England on account of the fiasco. 

" From this description you can gather 
what I think of this campaign. There are a 
great many more Turks here than the Eng- 
lish think. I think that probably our forces 
will have to spend the winter here unless 
everything changes suddenly. Even if we 
do, we won't get through to Constantinople 
unless very many more and good troops are 
sent out. The ground is full of gullies, and, 
by nature, so advantageous to defence that a 
few of the enemy can hold it against hundreds. 

"I am constantly in hot-water about home, 
as all here know I am an American, and the 



4 8 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

notes after the ' Lusitania ' aren't making us 
any too popular. Although my commander is 
friendly, I sometimes get furious. Fortun- 
ately I am about to be transferred to Suvla. 
Squad No. 12 is coming and No. 10 is going 
to Alexandria for rest. 

" Please don't forget to send me some food; 
books would be nice too." 

From August 8th to September 7th he 
and his squadron were on fatigue duty at 
Cape Helles. He swam every day — often 
several times; explored the country toward 
the firing line either on foot or on horse- 
back, and from the front trenches, frequently 
exposed to the intermittent Turkish artillery 
fire, saw still more unburied dead bodies 
which filled the air with a horrible stench. 
The food was scanty and bad, and this, with 
the heat, brought on an illness which lasted 
a few days only and was not severe enough 
to lay him up. 

The letters following deal with this period: 

September 6th, 19 15. 

"Well. No. 12 squad has come out here 
to relieve No. 10 and I am going to the new 
landing where there is more to do. Lister" 



CHARLES LISTER 49 

(son of Lord Ribblesdale, since killed), " the 
commander of all the Armoured Car force in 
Gallipoli, came with the squad. I had a talk 
with him, and he tells me that the arrange- 
ments about our corps are ' up in the air.' 
He thinks that it may be broken up, the 
officers and men recalled to Eneland and 
given the choice of going into the Naval Air 
Service or into the Army. He wanted me 
to stay at Cape Helles, but I protested and 
am going to Suvla. You can't imagine in 
what a mix-up the whole affair is. We have 
done nothing for a month. In fact the whole 
front has been quiet and even at General 
Headquarters they are uncertain what to do. 
If they don't wake up soon they will be the 
lauorhin^-stock of the world. I wish I could 
write you something cheerful, but the truth 
is best." 

September gt/i, 1 9 1 5 . 

" I arrived at Suvla Bay, the new landing, 
on a trawler yesterday after stopping at Gaba 
Tepe and seeing the Australians, who are a 
splendid lot of fighting-men. We landed at 
6 p.m. and went into camp a short distance 
up from the beach. All is a hopeless muddle 
here and things have been wretchedly man- 

E 



5 o DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

aged. Our troops, as I told you before, are 
now farther back than they were the first day 
of the landing owing to their not having 
artillery support, ammunition, reserves, or 
even proper maps of the ground they were 
expected to occupy, to say nothing of food 
and drinking water. Some very stupid things 
were done, such as moving troops in march- 
ing formation for two miles over open ground 
in the daytime. Of course they were cut to 
pieces, the casualties amounting to two-thirds 
of their number. 

" Three of my pals at Hythe were in the 
trenches on the ridge facing the Turks — 
Jefferson's Post — but, several days ago, two 
of them were wounded and the third killed, 
all in their dug-outs. The men I find capable 
and very satisfactory. 

" We hear again that the Armoured Cars 
are iroine to be disbanded. Word has come 
that there are no more reserves for us and 
that when our numbers are exhausted by 
sickness and wounds we are to turn our 
guns over to the army. You can see how 
discouraging it is, and I really don't think it 
worth our while sitting here all winter doing 
nothing. The Army doesn't recognize us, 
because we belong to the R.N.A.S., neither 



SUVLA BAY 51 

does the Navy, because we are acting on 
land. 

" The nature of the country here is like 
that before Achi Baba, there beine a big ranee 
of hills occupied by the enemy and many 
gullies. The Turks let us land and advance 
to the foot of the hills, but not a step further. 
They have been shelling the neighbourhood 
lately, and killed some men in the camp next 
to us; none of our men have been hurt since 
I have been here. We have very little drink- 
ing-water here and no bread to speak of. 
Just Bully Beef and bacon." 

September 21st, 1 9 1 5 . 

" I have had an attack of jaundice but 
don't feel badly at all now. The Doctor won't 
let me go into the trenches at Jefferson's Post 
thousfh I am sure I am well enough. There 
has been no move here for a long time, and 
both sides are just sitting opposite each other 
sending over shells once in a while. 

" I get no parcels and no post, though I 
am very anxious to hear what is happening 
in our world and what all my friends are 
doing. 

" The nights are growing cold but the days 
are warm and fine. The sea and hills are 



52 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

beautiful, and there are vast flocks of gulls 
flying about. I get, by the way, many good 
swims — water cool and bracing." 

On September 24th his diary notes: "See 
Doctor and get permission to go to Jeffer- 
son's Post and walk up to the trenches there. 
Beautiful day and sea as blue as can be. 
Look over gun positions and take some shots 
with a rifle at Turks. Have a dug-out to 
myself." 

He writes: 

September 2 5 th 19 15. 

"I have at last received some letters, 
dated 28th August and^ 5th September; no 
parcels. The one from Mrs. Morgan, en- 
closed, was nice to get. It had so much 
home news. I always like to hear what 
Bobby and Charles and the rest are doing. 

I am now with Squad No. 1 1 at Jefferson's 
Post up in the first line trenches on the ex- 
treme left, and overlooking our whole front 
as well as the Turks. The Bay of Xeros is 
on our left and the vie\v o is very fine. 

"We have had a little excitement. Two 
of our men that I came out with have just 
been wounded, though not badly, and near 



JEFFERSON'S POST 53 

us a trench-mortar bomb killed one man and 
wounded four others this morning. I have 
done some sniping, but don't think that I 
have hit any Turks, as the range is six 
hundred yards, and we only see their heads. 
The weather is still good and I feel better 
than when I last wrote. I was told that if I 
was not well enough to go to the trenches in 
two clays I should be sent to a hospital ship, 
so I persuaded the Doctor to let me go and 
I am better already. There is no progress 
here, and the Turks are digging themselves 
in deeper every day." 

On the 26th he was "officer of the watch 
and occupied a dug-out near No. 5 and No. 6 
guns. Inspected at 2 a.m. and found one 
man sleeping. At dawn, the enemy began 
shell fire, wounding one of our men, and kill- 
ing one and wounding three of the Yorks to 
our right. A sergeant of the latter shot in 
the stomach by sniper. Hear that we are 
going to attack, will get it hot if we do." 

Next day " spent the morning watching 
shell fire from the Anzacs. In the evenino- 
sniped at Turks. At 9 p.m. got an awful 
shock when the whole of our first line came 
into action. Took my men to front and with 



54 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

rifle and bayonet waited for the enemy. 
False alarm." 

September 2§t/i. " Barbed wire is being 
put up in front of us. Some think that the 
Turks are going to attack ; I don't. We are 
very inadequately fortified if they do, no 
support trenches, and we will be driven into 
the sea if they take Jefferson's Post." 

September 2gt/i. " Nothing- doing. No 
water to wash in, or for shaving. Take a 
walk in the afternoon down to the beach and 
have a swim, it was magnificent and the air 
and sea like home." 

Of the alarm of the 27th he writes in a 
letter : 

October \st, 191 5. 

" We have just had some changes. The 
other night things got in a bit of a panic, as 
word was passed that the Turks were about 
to attack, and if they had they would have 
had an easy job of it in our part of the line. 
There was no foundation for the alarm, and 
in consequence the best officers and men of 
both No. 9 and No. 10 squads have been 
sent up here while others with the O.C. of 
No. 11 squad have gone down to the base 
camp. One other and myself are the only 



HILL No. 10 55 

officers of those here on the night of the false 
alarm, who are selected to remain. I don't 
think that the Turks will attack at this place 
now. We have barbed wire all along the 
front of Jefferson's Post. I believe that we 
shall just hold on and won't attack either. I 
don't hear any more of our leaving. If I get 
a chance I shall go to France again and, if I 
change, I shall pick out a really good regi- 
ment. Since writing this my CO. has told 
me that they have no good officers and that 
I am wanted at Hill No. 10, and has ordered 
me to go to the base camp and report." 

October i^th, 19 15. 

" Since I wrote last I have been at the 
base camp, but am now up in the trenches at 
Hill No. 10. We, and in fact, the whole 
front, are very quiet, though we are always 
subject to more or less gun fire. For in- 
stance, when I was walking from camp to 
the beach for a swim, shrapnel went over 
my head. A Lt. Colonel who was near 
ducked under a rock, but there was no cover 
for me, and three shots came pretty near, 
one cutting a soldier's head off and wound- 
ing three others. Early in the morning of 
the 6th, soon after I got to Hill No. 10, our 



56 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

battleships started to bombard the heights 
opposite Jefferson's Post and plastered the 
Turkish trenches with shells, doing very 
good shooting. At the same time, a battery- 
posted behind us opened upon the same 
target and threw shrapnel over our heads, 
some bursting short and very close to us. 
On the iith our camp was shelled — five 
shots in all — killing one of our officers, and, 
on the next day, high explosives came over 
from the Turks and, later, as I was walking 
up to Jefferson's Post I was sniped at and 
forced to return. Saturday I saw an aero- 
plane descend on Salt Lake — dry now — and 
soon the Turks begfan to fire at it and hit it 
after ten minutes' trial, knocking off the right 
wing. So it goes every day. There is a 
rumour that the Admiralty has recalled us, 
but the Army won't let us go as they need 
our Qruns and men. 

" I have received nine boxes of food all at 
once, and appreciate them a lot. I only wish 
they had come some weeks ago when I needed 
them more. The weather is beautiful." 

October 26th, 191 5. 

" We are told now that we are to be dis- 
banded in two weeks. The men to be sent 



IN CHARGE OF SIX GUNS 57 

to Embros and the officers to have their 
choice of staying here with the Army or 
going back to England. In the meantime, 
we are consolidated into one squadron of 
ninety- three men and eight officers. It is 
realized that we cannot be reinforced from the 
army and we have no reserves to draw on. 
Most of our men are ill and all are discouraged 
by the vacillating policy regarding us. Espe- 
cially with the statement that has come to us 
that we ' are gradually to die a natural death ! ' 
I think I'll choose France. 

"On the 21st, after inspecting trenches, 
received orders to go to Jefferson's Post and 
walked first to the base to buy a mackintosh 
and then to the ridge. General Dallas of the 
11th Corps, the commander of this section, 
has been here and ordered us to fire machine- 
guns on enemy during the night. Am duty 
officer and have a good dugr-out to mvself 
with a canvas bed and, best of all, am having 
a more interesting time than before. We 
are on the top of a peak overlooking a 
valley and opposite the Turks about four 
hundred yards away. I take charge of six 
guns, as the other officers are teaching gun- 
nery, and am responsible for a part of the 
line. I sfo out in front of the trenches at 



5 8 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

night with a patrol, to a listening post a 
hundred yards in front of our position; snipe 
the Turks and am sniped at, a lot, by them, 
and altogether it is very exciting. Our in- 
fantry are sent out at night to put up wire 
and always ' get it in the neck.' The Turks 
are clever and clean fighters. Two of my 
officer friends were hit yesterday and six 
more to-day. 

" Something pathetic happened last night. 
An awfully nice artillery officer about eighteen 
years old told me at mess that he was going 
out in the nicdit in command of a winner 
party and said he didn't expect to come back. 
Sure enough, he was shot in the back and 
killed. I wonder if he knew! 

" To make matters more interesting our 
ships bombard from the harbour and from 
the Gulf of Xeros directly under us. We see 
the shells plunging into the trenches and 
bursting in the air over them, and at night it 
is a great sight. Yesterday we bombarded 
the Turks with field guns and Maxims, firing 
five hundred rounds. Artillery is being moved 
up to our front and I expect that we will make 
an attack here soon to take the ridges oppo- 
site us. This I know from experience will be 
a harder task than is generally thought." 



GENERAL DALLAS' OFFER 59 

November ist, 191 5. 

" Am duty officer up here for all the naval 
guns and am kept busy day and night. Have 
to be ready for any attack, and am enjoying 
myself. Things are beginning to move a bit 
since some new Generals have come out. We 
bombard the Turks every day and they reply. 
Was hit in the shoulder by a pretty big bit 
of flying rock but not hurt. Am directly up 
in front and on top of the ridge. Have seen 
a number of the enemy, but, as a rule, they 
keep well hidden and can only be seen 
singly. 

" We are still troubled by uncertain plans 
as to our future. Nearly all want to be dis- 
banded and the men are well fed up. I sup- 
pose if they want me I shall stick it out. One 
of our officers — the best we have — is eoinof 
to transfer to the 33rd Brigade under General 
Dallas. 

" Later. Was walking about looking over 
the trenches this afternoon, and ran into 
General Dallas, and he asked me to join him 
too, and said that he had put in a request for 
me. It was a compliment, but I don't think 
I shall, even if the Admiralty allow it, as I 
want to go to France again. I thanked him 
and told him this; but he answered that he 



60 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

needed and wanted me and I should soon be 
a Captain. However, nothing can be done 
about it until further developments. 

" The weather is fine and I feel very fit. 
All is quiet now except for bombardments 
which don't amount to much. It looks as if 
we were about to make a push." 

A few days after writing this letter, Nov- 
ember 4th, he was attacked by dysentery, 
and after trying to keep going for three days 
was sent down to the base hospital. Before 
leaving he took Kodak pictures of some of 
those in the trench. An officer named Kirk- 
wood jocularly told him if anything happened 
to send his picture back to his wife. He had 
only been married two weeks before he left 
home. 

After two days in hospital Dillwyn re- 
turned to Jefferson's Post, and writes : " Ar- 
rived back at 12.30. Saw three men on 
stretchers, bleeding, and almost gone. One 
was Kirkwood.* Two big shells went into 
the trench two hours before." 

* Kirkwood's brother-in-law, to whom the photograph 
was sent when Dillwyn returned to London, gave an in- 
teresting account of a Scottish tradition. On hearing of 
Kirkwood's death from the War Office he telegraphed 



RECALLED BY ADMIRALTY 61 

November \2tJ1. "Turks began fire at 
10 o'clock; kept it up for an hour, throwing 
over sixty shells. A part of the first parapet 
was knocked in, one man was blown to pieces 
and three others wounded, and I helped with 
them. Later in day word came that I had 
been ordered by the Admiralty to return to 
London and report. Left Jefferson's Post at 
2 p.m." 

On November 13th, at 7.30 am, he left the 
Peninsula on a trawler for Mudros. Here 
there was some delay about transportation, 
but by the 16th he had secured his permits, 
made arrangements, and was on the " North- 
land" on his way to England. The voyage 
was uneventful. He enjoyed the sea, and 
the quiet and comfort of the ship, and speaks 
in his diary of Gibraltar and of the beauty of 
the peaceful Spanish coast with its little 

the clergyman of the family parish in Scotland, and asked 
him to break the news to Kirkwood's Father. In deliver- 
ing the message the clergyman did not ring but knocked 
on the door. "Rapping on the door" means bad 
tidings in Scotland. The Father, Mother and Wife were 
seated in the library, and the former went out to answer 
the summons. When the young Wife finally heard the 
news she fainted and was given brandy to revive her. 
Whereupon the dominie declared "This is no place for 
me," and abruptly left the house. 



62 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

villages with white houses on the hills, and 
of its more distant mountains. " A place to 
visit again." 

The coast of Wales was sighted on the 
26th at 1 1 o'clock in the morning on a cold, 
brilliant sunshiny day. The latter unique in 
his experience, as he always had approached 
England in heavy rain. 



IV 

WE met him at Paddington Station, 
having been notified by wire of his 
coming, and were on the platform near his 
carriage when the train stopped. He jumped 
out, sun-burned and looking very much a 
soldier, but after the first greeting we felt that 
he had changed, and this feeling was confirmed 
later. He seemed to have dropped much of 
his youthfulness, and to have become more 
serious and possessed by a more purposeful 
energy. These changes showed in his manner 
and in the expression of his face, while his 
steadfast eyes looked as if they had seen 
many grave sights, and, as has been said of 
a recent picture of him, as if one could read 
in them the whole history of the war. He 
seemed not to care to talk much of Gallipoli, 
and in what he said there was little reference 
to the dangers he had passed through or to 
hardships endured. His conversation dealt 
mainly with the conduct of the campaign of 
which his opinion was far from favourable; 
the discouraging lack of efficiency and fixed 
purpose in the management of the Armoured 

63 



64 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

Car Division; the good qualities of his own 
men ; the cleverness and clean fighting of the 
Turks, which, he thought, now that they 
were warned and prepared, made their de- 
feat and the taking of Constantinople highly 
improbable. He spoke, also, many times of 
the strange beauty of the Peninsula and its 
surrounding sea. 

Since the abandonment of the Gallipoli 
expedition, however, we in England have 
had harrowing reports of what the troops 
suffered. The men brought back tales of the 
trying tropical climate; hunger and thirst; 
the prevalence of disease, especially dysentery, 
enteric, and jaundice, and the hard life in 
trench and dug-out often in proximity to un- 
buried and decomposing bodies and plagued 
by myriads of flies. They told, too, of the 
teasing Turkish gun-fire, which was able to 
search every trench and camp, and the per- 
petual sniping, both taxing their vigilance 
night and dav; of the slaughter attendant 
upon attempts to advance, and the discourage- 
ment incident to the failure of attacks upon 
naturally strong positions made practically 
impregnable by the devilish ingenuity of the 
Turks' German masters. 

Such continual looking into the face of 



CHOICE OF NEW SERVICE 65 

death, under very adverse conditions, could 
not result otherwise than in some way 
markedly influencing the survivors. Of many 
it made nervous wrecks; of others, mag- 
nificent fighting men, as, for example, in the 
case of the Anzacs. Upon Dillwyn the ordeal 
was purely developmental in its effect. He 
came through it with unbroken nerve, a more 
thoughtful, serious man, and mentally and 
physically a better soldier. 

When he reported at the Admiralty, he 
was told that he had been recalled because 
the Armoured Car Division was bein^ dis- 
banded. He was given a choice of several 
alternatives. Either to go into the Navy 
Flying Corps, to transfer to the Army and 
become either a pilot in the Royal Flying 
Corps or join any Regiment. Finally, being 
an American, he could have left the service 
with an honourable discharge, but both of us 
quickly agreed that it would be most unfair 
to desert the Allies at a time when matters 
were going none too well for them and when 
they needed every man who was fit and ex- 
perienced. With the two other propositions 
a decision was difficult. His friend Oliver 
Filley of the Royal Flying Corps, who had 
been flying in France with distinction, and 

F 



66 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

was then in London on leave, urged him to 
join the R.F.C. and be with him. On the 
other hand, Walter Oakman, who had joined 
the Coldstream Guards, suggested his be- 
coming a Guardsman. It was impossible for 
him to make up his mind at once, so with 
the question undecided he and Filley availed 
themselves of Waldorf Astor's offer to put 
his shooting and gillies at their disposal, and 
went for a month to Scotland. 

Returning to spend Christmas with us he 
passed a few days in investigation, and then 
determined to accept a commission as 2nd 
Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards. This 
was a step down in rank, and with promotion 
only by seniority, but it offered a sure pro- 
spect of speedily returning to the front. The 
air service required more mechanical know- 
ledge than he possessed, and an exceedingly 
protracted and tedious training. At the same 
time the unequalled status of this Regiment 
of the Guards met the definite resolution he 
had formed in Gallipoli, that if an opportunity 
for a change ever came he would associate 
himself only with trained soldiers. 

In pursuance of this plan he went on 
January 5th 19 16 to join the Coldstream 
Battalion at Victoria Barracks, Windsor, for 



COLDSTREAM GUARDS 67 

the preliminary training imposed upon every- 
one entering the Regiment, no matter what 
his previous record. His idea was that this 
would be short, and he thought that with 
his experience in Flanders and Gallipoli he 
was quite prepared to go out almost im- 
mediately. But he found that what he had 
been taught with the Armoured Cars and 
later at Hythe and at the front, were mere 
rough outlines compared with what he was 
obliged to know with the Guards. At first he 
could not see why to fight well it was so neces- 
sary to be careful as to carriage, dress, and 
attitude to those over and under him, and to 
observe such watchful care of his men. Or 
why the knowledge of drill and other tech- 
nical matters had to be so perfect. But Cold- 
stream tradition and spirit soon appealed to 
him, and he began to see that the very 
things which, at first, seemed trifling and 
were irksome, were an essential part of the 
perfect discipline that had made his Regiment 
second to none, and he became proud to be 
one of them. 

It is beside the purpose here to go into 
the details of the months he spent at 
Windsor. It suffices to say that he was well 
occupied with training, barrack work and 



68 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

guard duty at the Castle, where his name, 
according to custom, is inscribed on the wall 
of the Guard-room. However, we saw him 
frequently in London and at Sunningdale, 
where we had taken a house to be near 
him, and where he often came for the 
night and for the week-end; and later, at 
Windsor itself, where we spent several weeks 
before he went out in order to see as much 
of him as possible and make some home 
atmosphere for him. At last, he seemed to 
have come to his own, for his fellow officers 
were chiefly college men and of the same 
class in life. They knew that he was an 
American and honoured him the more for 
voluntarily helping in a cause he thought 
right, and held him blameless for the weak 
policy of a Government he could not control. 
Finding, too, that he had many similar tastes, 
they quickly fraternized, in golfing and row- 
ing in relaxation hours and in the regimental 
football team with which he played against 
other regiments and Eton. For his men he 
always had an admiration and deep liking, 
and his ambition came to be, as he told a 
friend, to lead them in a charge. 

So the time passed until the day came for 
him to go to France, on Tuesday the nth of 



TO FRANCE AGAIN 69 

July. We and a large party of his own 
friends (including Richard Norton, his chief 
in his ambulance days) saw him off and 
said good-bye at Waterloo Station, and he 
left us with quiet cheerfulness and high ex- 
pectations. Besides himself there were four 
other Coldstream officers in the draft. A 
compartment had been reserved for them, 
with a lunch table daintily set, and one could 
not help contrasting this departure with the 
one of little more than a year before with 
the Armoured Cars from Dover. 



V 

THE story must be continued through 
some of his many regular letters, for 
although he probably kept up daily records, 
no diary has been found. If it existed it was 
probably in his pocket at the time he received 
his mortal shot. 

Guards' Division, 

Base Depot, B.E.F., France. 
July i^t/i, 1 91 6. 

" I arrived at Havre early on Wednesday 
morning and came out here to camp. We 
had a good trip over except for no sleep. 

" Yesterday I went up to the trenches and 
acted captain of a company. The men were, 
of course, strangers to me. However, I got 
through with it somehow. In the afternoon 
we were ordered to join the Intrenching Bat- 
talion near Albert, and I think it will be in- 
teresting here as we are quite well up to the 
front. There are Scots, Irish, and Grenadiers 
with us, and some of our own officers who 
have not gone up yet. All the men are 
splendid and the officers unusually nice. 

70 



INTRENCHING BATTALION 71 

Saw many German prisoners — strong-looking 

men. 

" Will you tell Daniels to send me a pair 
of slacks (long trousers) as all the officers here 
wear them when they stop work. Please have 
them made from the same material as my 
new uniform. Also will you send out my old 
mackintosh which will be useful. Tell Daniels 
to send me the bill. 

" Lots of love to you and the family at 
Amberley House." 

July 17 th, 1916. 

"lam now at a place near Bray. There 
are many of my old pals here. They gave 
me a great reception, and I am sure that 
I am going to enjoy myself. 

"There is a good deal of fighting going 
on, and yesterday I walked over the battle- 
field and into Mametz Wood. We have done 
awfully well to have gained so much ground 
as we did. There is an incessant roar of 
cannon and it is quite lively. The weather 
is rotten. Went into a Hun dug-out forty feet 
below the ground. It was all panelled up and 
had two stoves and glass windows in the doors. 
Some dead are still lying about the fields, but 
things have been pretty well cleared up. 



72 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

" Think I shall stay with this Battalion for 
some time. I think when I go to the front 
I am eoinof with the 2nd Battalion, which I 
believe is the best, and the one Oak and 
Stewart-Richardson * were in. 

"Address, 7th Intrenching Battalion, 
Guards, B.E.F." 

July 23rd, 1916. 

" I got your letter and also ' Life ', and 
thanks. 

" I am in Fricourt, having a very interest- 
ing time as this part of the line is very active. 
We see the whole battle from our camp and 
there is a tremendous roar of guns all around 
us. We have very little news of our progress, 
but know that the Australians have done 
wonders ; that the casualties are awfully 
heavy, and that matters generally are not 
going on as well as they might. I walked up 
to Contalmaison the other day and saw one 
of our aeroplanes brought down by the Huns. 
The Germans now that they have had three 
weeks to prepare have brought up men and 

* J. Stewart- Richardson, after a week's honeymoon in 
England, had gone back to France to obtain leave to 
return again to London for an operation upon an old 
wound received in Gallipoli. He had been in the trench 
less than an hour when he was killed. 



CARNOY 73 

guns and it will be hard to push through 
them. 

"Jack MacVeagh is at some place about 
here. My servant happened to hold his 
horse for him, and when he saw that he was 
a Coldstreamer he asked about me. He told 
him where I am and Jack said he would look 
me up. He is in the 5th D.A.C. Field 
Artillery. 

" Will you send me a small silver star for 
a field cap which you can get at Smith's in 
Ebury Street. It is like the one in my dress 
cap, only smaller. 

" I go down to Carnoy and build roads 
when I am on fatigue. To-day I am picket 
officer. Lots of love." 

July 29//$, 19 16. 

" I got a letter from you some days ago, 
also magazines and ' Life' to-day. Have no 
news to tell you except that I am well and 
at the same place. A few of the men whom 
I knew at Windsor have gone up to the line. 
They have been here six weeks. Had I 
gone out with them I should have been up 
by now. However, I enjoy it, as I can walk 
all over the place. 

" There is still a lot doing in this sector 



74 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

and, as usual, the Australian troops, being 
colonials, have done wonders notwithstand- 
ing the fact that they have had very little 
discipline. 

" Lots of love." 

August gt/i, 1 91 6. 

" I am now with the 2nd Battalion and 
have the same Platoon No. 12, that Stewart- 
Richardson had. We are back of the line at 
present, in rest. I visited some of my old 
acquaintances with whom I stayed in these 
parts before, and the old woman kissed me. 
I never had such a warm welcome anywhere. 
The French people are certainly very hospit- 
able. It was over a year and a half ago since 
I saw them and they seemed awfully pleased 
to see me back. 

" This afternoon I am playing football 
against the Grenadier Guards. We are play- 
ing socker and I don't know the first thing 
about it.* 

" The country around here is great and I 
have been doing- a little walking. The weather 

* Colonel Crawford told me later that he made Dillwyn 
play whether he knew socker or not, and he added, 
enthusiastically, " He was the best football player I ever 
saw." 



FOOTBALL v. GRENADIERS 75 

is fine and the crops which are planted in 
every field are a fine sight. 

" I can't tell you any news as the War Office 
has forbidden officers to write home anything 
even to their own families. I believe one 
man has been court-martialled for doing it. 
Not in our regiment, however." 

August 10th, 1 9 16. 

" We are moving further but don't expect 
to do anything for some time. 

" The match with the Grenadiers came out 
a tie. I was lucky enough to make a goal for 
our side in the last thirty seconds. The score 
was three all. It was a hot day and not good 
for football. 

"It is raining now and laying the dust. I 
hope all goes well with you and that you are 
having a good time at Amberley." 

August i^t/i, 1 916. 

" We have moved again close to the front 
and have very good huts to sleep in. The 
weather is still fine and we have had a quiet 
time doing a little drilling and revolver prac- 
tice. With the present strict censoring it is 
impossible to write you any news. I am very 
well." 



76 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

August iith, 191 6. 

"Am in the trenches with No. 12 Platoon 
the rest of my company being in support, and 
there is no very great activity. I find my 
platoon an excellent one and every man 
works well. My Sergeant- Major, Thursfield, 
is a good fellow and hard worker. Can you 
send some cigarettes for the men ? Woodbine 
or Goldflake are the best. The soldiers get 
paid very seldom and can't buy them. I have 
fifty men. Don't worry about me. At least 
I hope you will not because I shall be all 
right." 

August igt/i, 1916. 

" Have just been relieved from the front 
line and moved to the reserve trenches and 
only wish that I may never get it any worse 
than I have this time. There was one casualty 
this morning when a Sergeant got hit in the 
leg by shrapnel. It is the kind of a wound 
that I am looking for. The reserve trenches 
where I am now are pretty rotten having been 
blown in some time aero. This makes things 
interesting and if we were staying, there 
would be lots of work to do repairing them, 
but there is no time now. 

" We leave here to-morrow for some place 



UNDER TWO-HOUR ORDERS 77 

behind the line and then, I believe, to another 
destination." 

August 27th, 19 16. 

" We are back of the line now and expect 
to be out for a week. I have been to an 
Aerodrome to-day for instruction in signal- 
ling when attacking. I believe that we are 
going to have a show here soon, but am un- 
certain when. 

" Our mess is very comfortable and good, 
you need not send me any food. 

" German prisoners are coming through. 
They seem very young. They say we may 
drive them back, but that the war will end in 
a draw. The Germans, though, are pretty 
much ' up in the air ' and our artillery is 
giving them the Devil." 

September ^th, 1916. 

" I got your letter telling me the news 
and also of your visit to London. Also pack- 
ages of food, but don't know from whom. 

"There is a lot doing around here now 
and we are under two-hour orders, that is, we 
may have to move at any minute. By all 
reports everything is going well, although 
the rain and mud hamper us. 

" I got a nice letter from Fish who tells me 



;8 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

Park and other friends have gone down to 
the Mexican border." 

September gt/i, 191 6. 

" We have not gone into action since I 
last wrote you. We have been expecting to 
go out at any moment, but the order was 
cancelled and here we are still. I suppose 
that we will start within the next week surely. 

"There is a terrific gun fire here and I 
don't see how the Germans stand it. They 
seem to be fighting hard, although we keep 
on gaining little by little. 

" Had a swim in the Somme the other day 
and had a long talk with a French soldier I 
met. He says that France will stick to the 
end, no matter how long. Their soldiers are 
strong, fine-looking men, and are doing great 
things. This fellow seemed to think that 
they have a lot of men still left in reserve. All 
here admire the Frenchmen, and I am glad 
that I have French blood in my veins. 

"There is not much that I am allowed to 
tell you. Still think that the war will go 
over the Winter, but a great many do not 
agree with me. Perhaps there will be some- 
thing biof coming off soon." 

Owing to Army regulations commanding 



ALBERT REGION 79 

silence, these letters, covering the two months 
of his final campaign, show that he was fully 
occupied with congenial work, satisfied with 
his part in a perfected organization and happy 
with his companions and surroundings, but 
furnish very few details. These have been 
since partly supplied by wounded Coldstream 
officers and men who have come back to 
hospitals in England. Lieutenant Wilkinson, 
who will be referred to again later, furnished 
the following data: "After leaving the In- 
trenching Battalion " — a composite body en- 
gaged in field practice and made up of different 
units of the Guards (in this instance Scots, 
Irish, and Grenadiers) — "Starr joined the 
Active Battalion at Sarton on August 4th. 
From this date we marched about from place 
to place in the Albert region. Stopping at 
Bertrancourt, Louvencourt, Bois de Warni- 
mont, Beauval, Montonvillers, and Meaulte. 
Near Louvencourt we were in the first 
trenches for four days. At Meaulte we 
stayed from August 25th to September 10th. 
On the evening of the 7th September I dined 
with No. 3 Company. There were six of us 
at table, Burn, Furgusson, Clarke, Neame, 
Dill, and myself. Only Neame and I are 
left. On the 10th we marched to Carnoy." 



80 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

" While in the trenches near Louven- 
court," one of the men of Dillwyn's platoon 
told me, " we were under a hot shell fire and 
we men became jump)-, but Lieutenant Starr 
was perfectly cool, kept a look-out for the 
shells, said to us that by their sound in the 
air we could tell something of where they 
would strike, and put heart into us and kept 
us steady. We knew then that we had a 
good leader." 

Next come the last words! With a vein of 
serious purpose they show brave hopefulness, 
without dread and with affectionate considera- 
tion for us. 

September 12th, 19 16. 

Dearest Family, 

" We are going up in the line to-morrow 
or next day, so if you don't hear from me for 
a few days, don't worry. No news is good 
news, and you will find out from the War 
Office immediately anything happens to me, 
which I don't anticipate. 

" They hope here that we shall break 
through the German lines, but I have my 
doubts. There is a chance, however, and if 
we do, it will make all the difference in the 
world. 



GINCHY 81 

"Your pictures are great and I am glad 
you sent them to me. 

" Am going for a ride this afternoon and a 
swim. 

" I send lots of love to you both and will 
write again, soon, if possible. 

" Lovingly, 

Dill." 

Soon after this letter was written the order 
came for the 2nd Battalion to go to Ginchy, 
from which point they, together with the 
other two Battalions of the regiment, were 
to attack and break through or drive back 
the Germans who were holding a strong 
position opposite this part of the line. As a 
hard battle with many casualties was ex- 
pected, each company was put under three 

officers only (others being kept in reserve) 

a Captain and two Lieutenants, each of the 
latter being in command of two platoons. 
For his company, No. 3, Dillwyn was se- 
lected because his O.C., Captain Burn, said 
of him that " his men were certain to follow 
him anywhere," and in drawing lots for line 
position he secured the choice and took for 
himself and his two platoons (his own No. 12 
and the extra one No. 11) the advance post; 

G 



82 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

support, about thirty yards behind, falling to 
Lieutenant Neame with the other two pla- 
toons. This selection, by his Colonel, for 
a command in such an important attack 
and the responsible position secured by the 
draw, pleased him greatly, and he seems to 
have been glad, too, that he was about to 
achieve his ambition to lead his men in a 
Charge; the more as it was to be the first 

o f 

time in Coldscream history that the three 
Battalions were to "go over" together. 
Colonel Crawford has told me since that he 
was poised and undaunted and they all knew 
that they could trust him. 

The Battalion reached Ginchy rather late 
in the evening of the 14th in brilliant moon- 
light, passed through the village and went 
into trenches on the far side. Having posted 
his men, he left them to join Lieutenant 
Wilkinson who, being familiar with the posi- 
tion, had been directing the alignment of the 
troops, and with him and Lieutenant Fuller 
made a reconnaissance of the ground to be 
advanced over in the morning. The night 
was still very light and there was considerable 
sniping. Rifle bullets splattered about them 
and, some time after midnight, Wilkinson 
was hit and badly wounded in the hand, 



LAST NIGHT S 3 

rapidly becoming faint from loss of blood. 
Dillwyn applied a tournaquet and, having 
revived him from his flask, partly pushed and 
partly carried him, very loath to leave the 
front, to the dressing station well behind the 
line. After returning, the rest of the night 
was passed in the trenches with a little sleep 
snatched where he stood — there was no room 
nor place to lie down. Neame spoke with 
him several times on matters of duty, but he 
seems to have talked more with his men to 
prepare them for the difficult task that they 
all knew was before them, and those who are 
left speak of his coolness and cheerfulness. 
Something suggested to him that there were 
Germans close in front, and he repeated this 
suspicion to his Captain and twice asked to 
be allowed to take out a patrol to investigate 
and if possible bomb them out, but was 
refused because such an order had to come 
from headquarters, and shattered telephone 
wires prevented communication. 

To give a proper conception of the coming 
action it will be well to interpolate here a 
description of the position, as we now know 
it, from which the Germans were to be 
ejected. Directly before the trenches occu- 
pied by the 2nd Battalion of the Coldstream 



84 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

Guards, were some shell-shattered tree-trunks, 
the remains of a small orchard; three hun- 
dred yards in front of these was a short 
trench — where Dillwyn's instinct had placed 
the enemy — and three hundred yards further 
on, a longer trench, both parallel to the 
Coldstream line and hastily made by joining 
up shell craters, of which there were many 
in the artillery-ploughed fields. Neither ot 
these trenches were indicated on the service 
maps as they had not been detected by 
scouting aeroplanes and were probably newly 
created. Six hundred yards beyond them 
were the main German trenches, the location 
and strength of which were thoroughly 
charted and known. To the left of the Guards' 
position there ran a sunken road. This was 
bristling with machine-guns, as was found 
also to be the case with the two subsidiary 
trenches. 

It was understood that at 5.40 o'clock on 
the morning of the 15th a squadron of 
"Tanks " were to advance from the rear along 
the sunken road and silence the machine- 
oains there. At 6.20 the Guards were to "sro 
over." 

True to the appointed time the " Tanks " 
were heard to start and, under heavy gun-fire, 



"COME ON, 12 PLATOON!" 85 

to come on a little way. Then they stopped ! 
Every man in the Coldstream trench real- 
ized the import of this failure. One of the 
non-commissioned officers spoke to Dillwyn 
about it and was answered " I know, but we 
will go on without them." From this time, 
piecing together the bits of the story as they 
have reached me, I can picture him as the 
fixed moment approached, full of eagerness 
and suppressed energy and without the slight- 
est trace of fear, standing with one foot so 
placed in a niche in the trench that he could 
leap to the top and over at the instant time 
was up, and hear him say, ''five minutes 
more, men," " one minute more, men," and 
"time 's up." Then, they tell me, he sprang 
on to the parapet, revolver in hand, and 
waving his stick and shouting, "Come on, 
12 platoon, come on," leapt over and led on 
the charge. They went out into a perfect 
storm of shells and a hail of machine-o-un 
bullets, a direct fire from the short trench in 
front of them and an enfilading fire from the 
uncleared road to the left. # But they pressed 
on, he always well in front of his rapidly 
thinning platoons. They reached the short 

* Having depended upon the "Tanks" to take the 
enemy by surprise there was no protective barrage. 



86 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

trench and here Dillwyn fell, just as he was 
springing upon its parapet, with his face to 
the enemy, shot through the heart, and killed 
instantly. His men, after a severe struggle, 
took the trench and, with the wave of support, 
swept by him. Less resistance was offered at 
the second trench, and when they reached the 
main trench the few who were left occupied 
it without any difficulty, as the Germans were 
on the run, and held it securely until they 
were relieved next day to take part in the 
capture of Lesbceufs. 

The first report of Dillwyn's death came 
from wounded Coldstream Officers who ar- 
rived in London on September 20th at the 
private hospital at 58, Grosvenor Street, 
where Walter Oakman was recovering from 
a severe wound received some months before. 
These officers told him of the sanguinary- 
battle and, though not in the same company, 
they had the worst fears for Dillwyn. With 
characteristic unselfishness he, at once, got out 
of bed and went to see the Colonel's wife to 
learn what she had heard. Mrs. Crawford had 
that morning received a letter from her hus- 
band telling her that of all the officers of his 
battalion who " went in " he had only brought 
one out unwounded. " Starr, Edmonstone 



CHARGE OF THE GUARDS 87 

and Lane * killed." Then he and Dr. Percival 
White, with much kindly sympathy, broke the 
news to us. 

There was a slight, almost impossible hope 
that there might be some mistake, but the 
official notice reached us the next day in the 
following wire, which is inserted because of 
its considerate wording: 

" Deeply regret to inform you that 2nd 
Lt. D. P. Starr, Coldstream Guards, was 
killed in action September 15th. The Army 
Council express their sympathy. 

Secretary, War Office." 

Almost coincidently, accounts came through 
about this charge of the Guards, accomplish- 
ing its object in the face of such resistance 
and with the great handicap of an enfiladed 
flank. It roused the pride and admiration of 
all England. The press rang with praises of 
it. As one example I will quote the words 
of " A Correspondent " that appeared in the 
" Morning Post" of September 22nd. 

With the British Army, 
Sept. igfh. 

" When the Guards set out at dawn last 

* Sons of Sir Archibald Edmonstone and Sir Ronald 
Lane. 



38 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

Friday morning to go forward with the rest 
of the battle front, for the first time in the 
history of the regiment three battalions of 
the Coldstream Guards charged together — 
advancing, as one eye-witness describes it, 
* as steadily as though they were walking down 
the Mall.' The line rippled over the broken 
ground, never halting or hesitating, while 
shells burst above and around them. Gaps 
were blown in their ranks, only to disappear 
as the Battalions closed in again; machine- 
guns raked the fields over which they passed, 
but they could not stay the steady, onward 
drive of the cheering Coldstream Guards. 

"The Guards fought gloriously. Still the 
shells rained down on them as they lay in 
the captured trenches ; still the machine-guns 
beat an infernal tatoo across the slope as 
they scrambled out to charge anew another 
thousand yards. Yet they swept into the 
second line like a whirlwind, and it was 
theirs! All the rest of the day they lay under 
a devastating fire. So they dug into the 
crumbling earth and threw out their outposts, 
and when night fell they were still hanging 
on grimly, no counter attacks could shake 
them loose from the ground that they had 
won. 



IN THE CHARGE 89 

"As they crouched in their shallow trenches 
they saw the beaten enemy falling back — saw 
him slinking away from the remnants of the 
line he had tried to hold — men, machine-guns, 
field guns, bomb stores, all in full retreat 
from the position they had tried to maintain 
at all cost. They had met the Guards. 

" While they lay under fire throughout the 
night some of their number brought up food 
and water through the German barrage. 
And when they were relieved at dawn they 
marched back as steadily as they had ad- 
vanced, thinned battalions and weary, but 
undaunted. 'They were simply splendid; 
nothing could stop them,' was the tribute of 
one of their officers." 

The details of Dillwyn's part in all this 
after giving his order to " Come on " will 
never be fully known, though one may readily 
imagine his keenness in the charge and his 
deeds during the supreme hour — the cul- 
mination of his athletic career and war train- 
ing. He was seen to "go over" and go 
forward in front of his men, but nothing 
more, by Lt. Lionel G. C. Neame, who was 
stricken down at the moment of ordering his 
supporting platoons forward. Lt. O. W. H. 



go DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

Leese started abreast of him and they ad- 
vanced between forty and fifty yards together, 
when he wheeled to the left and Dillwyn to 
the right, and he saw him no more. He was 
himself soon seriously wounded. Captain 
Burn, who was in the trench with him, was 
mortally wounded very early in the action 
and died in a few hours. So it is to his own 
men that we must trust for most of what we 
actually know, and although in the stress and 
confusion of battle even personal experiences 
are blurred, their letters do furnish some 
points, and at the same time show, how much 
they thought of him. 



Ward D, S. G. Hospital, 
Birmingham, 

October $rd, 1916. 

Dear Sir, 

" I shall be very pleased to give you 
some information of your friend whom I knew 
so well, but I did not see him killed though 
we were only a few yards apart. 

" On the morning of the 15th I was speak- 
ing to him about the trench we had to take, 
in fact, it was more of a redoubt, held very 
strongly by the Germans, and we were the 
first over at 6.20. We were held up for a 



SOLDIERS' LETTERS 91 

few minutes between our line and the Ger- 
mans. He was then all right. The order 
then came to charge the trench, in that he 
got hit while leading us in the charge. I did 
not see him fall, but was told while in the 
captured trench that he had been shot through 
the heart. We all knew we had lost a 
splendid leader who saw no fear. He knew, 
and so did I, that we should have a terrible 
fight to gain the trench, but he was cool, 
and cheered up all his men, and I am sorry- 
he did not live to see the spirit he had put 
into them in the final charge. He died a hero 
always in front of us. 

" I am very sorry, Sir, I can give you no 
more information of Lt. Starr. He could 
have felt no pain, and will be a great loss to 
our Company; such men so cool under a 
terrible barrage of fire are not so easy found. 
Your loss is also ours, for I knew him as a 
gentleman and soldier on the battlefield and 
off. 

" Trusting, Sir, this information will con- 
vince you he died a hero at the head of his 
men, I don't think you could get better, for 
I was only a few yards away from him. 
" Yours truly, 

Philip Andrews, Cpl." 



92 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

ist Southern General Hospital, 
Stourbridge, 

Worcestershire. 

October 6 th, 1916. 

Dear Sir, 

"In answer to your letter regarding the 
details of Lt. Starr's death. Well, I was quite 
close to him when he got shot. He was just 
off the German trench ; he received a machine- 
gun bullet through the body, death being in- 
stantaneous. He was a fine fellow, and a 
braver officer never led troops in an attack. 
When the signal was given, he was on the 
parapet of our own trench with his stick in 
the air, you see he carried a walking stick in 
one hand and a revolver in the other, and 
it was I who passed the remark that poor 
Lt. Starr had got killed. He was one of the 
boldest and bravest men on the battlefield; 
any man in No. 3 Company would tell you 
the same. 

"It seems rather a coincidence, but as it 
happened I think I was the last man to 
receive a five-franc note of him, as my section 
won it for bombing. You see he was a very 
good sport and often used to have bombing 
competitions amongst the different platoons. 

" Well, Lt. Starr was killed while leadine 



SOLDIERS' LETTERS 93 

the first wave of No. 3 Company attacking 
from Ginchy toward a village called Lesbceufs. 
The attack started at 6.20 a.m., and it was 
while the Company was fighting for the front 
line trench that I was wounded. I am sorry 
to say also that our company officer was shot 
in the same charge, only he lived through 
his, I believe — well, he was living when I came 
away. His name was Capt. H. C. Burn. 

" Well, Lt. Starr's body lies in front of 
Ginchy, and I suppose he will be picked 
up and buried somewhere near Ginchy or 
Guillemont. So I think that is all I can say. 
Never did a man give up his life more bravely 
than Lt. Starr of No. 12 Platoon, 2nd Cold- 
stream Guards; he died a great and brave 
death leading his men on to an objective 
which I am pleased to say they got, clear- 
ing the path for a further advance. Paying 
heavily, but never mind, we can't expect to 
drive them back only by losing men. 
" Yours very truly, 

Cpl. E. C. Mitchell." 



94 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

To Mrs. Starr. 

East Leeds War Hospital, 

KlLLINGBACK, 

Leeds. 
Dear Madam, 

" Your letter I received on Saturday. I 
am very sorry that I cannot tell you how 
Lt. Starr was killed, as I was hit before we 
Qfot to the trenches. I read afterwards, while 

o 

in hospital in France, that he had fallen in 
action. There are a few things I can tell, 
and that is that Lt. Starr was one of the 
best officers we ever had. He was a good 
sportsman and did his best for all the men in 
his platoon. He always tried to get us 
good billets when coming from the trenches 
and always had a smile for us, and I am 
sure any of the men would have followed 
him anywhere and would have done anything 
for him. He was only a month or so with 
my platoon before I came away, but in that 
time he proved himself to be a good officer 
and a gentleman. He knew no fear. I can 
say both for the few that are left in my 
platoon and for myself that we are very sad 
to lose him. 

" Yours sincerely, 

J. Bracewell." 



SOLDIERS' LETTERS 95 

To the Same. 

20TH Divisional School of Instruction, 
B.E.F. 

Jatmary ist, 191 7. 

Dear Madam, 

" I did not write to you before as I ex- 
pected to be home on leave and I would have 
written from London, my home is in Chelsea. 
But owing to a new class assembling we were 
unable to get away. I am hoping to be home 
at the end of this month. Yes, your son had 
been in the trenches before with me, but on 
account of the Censor I am unable to men- 
tion the name of them or the place. 

" I did not ' go over ' with him (Sept. 1 5th) 
as I was one of the N.C.O.'s chosen by my 
Captain to remain behind to arrange for the 
25th. Your son came over to me the night 
of the 14th and shook hands with me and 
eave me cigarettes to o'ive to his men. He 
said ' I will not say good-bye, Sgt. Thursfield 
but au revoir.' He was so good to us all. I 
am very sorry I cannot give you any informa- 
tion as to where his grave is, but if ever I am in 
the vicinity again I will do my best to find it. 
" Yours very sincerely, 

S. Thursfield, Sgt." 

This is the Sergeant mentioned by Dillwyn 



96 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

in his letter of August 17th, probably with 
the intention of giving us the name of a reli- 
able man to whom to refer in case of any 
mishap. 



VI 



WE next come to a telegram from Buck- 
ingham Palace and letters from his 
superior and fellow officers. The telegram is, 
on the surface, a formula sent to the families of 
all fallen officers, but it carries — we may be- 
lieve — both a recognition of service and 
much kindly sympathy from the heads of the 
British nation. The letters have a deep 
personal appreciation for him as a man, and 
for his voluntary efforts, though a stranger, 
to further their cause. 



O.H.M.S. Buckingham Palace, 
2 ith September, 1916. 

To Louis Starr, Esq. 

" The King and Queen deeply regret the 
loss you and the Army have sustained by 
the death of your son in action. Their Ma- 
jesties truly sympathize with you in your 
sorrow. 

Keeper of the Privy Purse." 
h 



9 8 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

To the Same. 

Headquarters, France, 

September 23rd, 1 9 1 6 . 

" Your boy was killed on the morning of 
the 15th, leading his platoon in an attack 
against the Germans. 

" The Battalion came under very heavy 
rifle and machine-gun fire and our casualties 
were heavy, but the men in his company tell 
me that he was shot through the heart while 
leading and cheering on his platoon. 

"He had not been with us very long, but 
his ability and keenness were undoubted 
and he met his end as a true Coldstreamer 
should. 

" We mourn his loss and I offer you on 
behalf of the Battalion our sincerest sympathy 
in your great loss. 

" Yours sincerely, 

Reginald Crawford, Lt. Col. 
Comg. 2nd Batt. Coldstream Gds." 

To the Same. 

Regimental Headquarters, 
Coldstream Guards, 
Buckingham Gate, S.W. 
October 15M, 191 6. 

" I have been trying to find time to write 
to you for a considerable time, but as you 



OFFICERS' LETTERS 99 

will doubtless be able to understand we have 
been kept very busy here of late and it has 
been very difficult to find any time for writino- 
the very many private letters with which I 
have had to deal personally, and conse- 
quently those that were not written in 
answer to questions have been very much 
delayed. 

" I particularly wish to convey to you and 
yours the very sincere sympathy which the 
Regiment specially feels for you in your 
sorrow caused by the death of your gallant 
son, who was fighting in our ranks not be- 
cause he was in honour bound to be fighting, 
but because he considered it his duty to help 
the cause of justice and right to the best of 
his ability. 

" Previously to the War we had ties which 
kept the Regiment in very friendly touch 
with the U.S.A., but now we are bound to 
you by a very much closer bond, your son, 
and others like him, who never rested till 
they were able to give us their active assist- 
ance in upholding the honour of the Regiment 
in this tremendous War, and this will never 
be forgotten in the Regiment, as long as its 
name endures. 

" To have voluntarily given his life as 



ioo DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

your son has done for the cause of right and 
in support of an abstract principle is quite 
the noblest thing a man could do. It is far 
higher than giving it in fighting to safeguard 
one's own Hearth and Home, and for the 
maintenance of the Empire of which one is 
one's self a unit. And, believe me, we 
greatly appreciate this spirit in which so 
many Americans are fighting on our side. But 
what appeals so greatly to us Coldstreamers 
is the way in which our American brother- 
officers have thrown themselves heart and 
soul into the spirit of the Regiment, and 
there are no British -born Coldstreamers 
prouder of the regiment than they or more 
jealous of its good name, and we old Cold- 
streamers are prouder of no one than of our 
American officers, and the debt that we owe 
them will never be forgotten. 

" The glory which the Guards Division 
has gained by its gallant fighting in this great 
battle will live in history, and I feel sure that 
any American family who took a share in the 
winning of that glory will be proud of the 
fact, and hand the story down to succeeding 
generations as an honourable fact to be re- 
membered in the family for all time. 

" I feel sure your son is rejoicing, as he 




O C BERESFORD 



DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

COLDSTREAM GUARDS. 



OFFICERS' LETTERS 101 

looks back with pride on what he has done, 
and that it would not be fair to him to detract 
from his happiness by letting him see that 
those he has left behind are more sorry at 
losing him than proud of the glorious death 
he has died. 

" In the name of the Regiment I offer Mr. 
D. P. Starr's family our heartfelt thanks for 
the services he has rendered and the supreme 
sacrifice he has made for the Coldstream 
Guards, and express my hope that the link 
which has now been forged will never be 
broken. 

" I must ask you to accept my own personal 
sympathy in your bereavement and to be- 
lieve me, 

" Very sincerely yours, 

J. A. G. R. Drummond-Hay, Colonel, 
Commanding Coldstream Guards." 



From Rupert E. Fellowes, 
Lt. Coldstream Guards. 

Lady Carnarvon's Hospital for Officers, 

48, Bryanston Square, W. 

29/A September, 191 6. 

" I hope you will not mind my writing you 
a word about Dillwyn — whom I have come 



102 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

to know well in the last six months, both at 
Windsor and latterly with the 2nd Battalion. 

"It seems to me that the only great and sure 
comfort (and it is complete) for you must be 
the splendid, imperturbable, but not blind 
courage with which Dillwyn faced whatever 
was to come. He had faced, long before the 
time came, the one great question, and was 
able to meet all the petty irritations, as well 
as all the dangers of a soldier's life after that, 
with quiet humour and trust and courage. 

" In such a fine and courageous passing 
there is no room for sadness. 

" Officers and men were equally fond of him, 
and they all felt that before he was an officer, 
before he was an American, before anything, 
he was a man, and a man whom they could 
trust." 

From Harold Gude and R. V. B. Loxley, 
(Lieutenants, R.N.A.S.) 
Late of R.N. Armoured Cars, 
Sqds. No. 9 and No. 11. 

No. 3 Wing, R.N.A.S., France. 

October i$th, 191 6. 

" I hope you will pardon us intruding on 
your sorrow, but we feel that you would like 



OFFICERS' LETTERS 103 

every bit of news about your son you can get. 
Lt. Loxley and myself met Dill's friend 
Rumsey in the American Squadron here and 
we were going to write him when the sad 
news came of his death. I have no doubt 
that his brother officers and his men all loved 
him and appreciated his pluck, but not more 
so than those of the Armoured Cars did in 
Gallipoli. 

" Loxley and I were first with him at Hythe, 
training. We next met him at Suvla Bay 
when he was attached to us, and we went 
through that campaign together. Gallipoli 
was about the toughest proposition of the 
war, but all through, your son set an example 
of pluck and cheerfulness which kept every- 
one as happy as was possible. Both Loxley 
and I have been out in front of the lines with 
him, and we shared dug-outs and dangers 
together. It is pretty bad when one hears 
of one's own countrymen going under, but 
when a man like Dillwyn who volunteers 
from sheer love of justice, gets it, it hits us 
doubly hard. We are only too glad that at 
least we can write and share a little in your 
grief, for we also lost in him a friend who 
was a good sport and a brave gentleman. 
The only consolation, if such it can be called, 



io 4 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

is that he died as he would have wished. He 
always said that if his turn came he would 
like to be in the middle of the game where 
the fiorhtin^ was the hottest. 

" Please accept our most sincere sympathy 
in your sad loss." 

The next letter, from Richard Norton, goes 
still further back : 



The American Volunteer Motor 
Ambulance Corps Inc. 
(Section Sanitaire Americaine, No. 7) 
October 2nd, 1916. 

"It was only a few days ago that I heard 
the bitter news of your son's death. It was 
not unexpected, for everyone who knew Dill, 
knew that he would always be in the fore- 
front when honour called. That he and I 
once worked together will always be, so long 
as memory lasts, one of my most pleasant 
thoughts. No words of mine can numb the 
grief that you and his Mother suffer, but I 
take a certain sad pleasure in expressing to 
you the honour in which we all hold the 
Mother and Father of such a youth and the 
keen realization we have that we are the 
better men for having known him." 



MEMORIAL SERVICE, LONDON 105 

A beautiful and most Impressive Memorial 
Service for fallen Coldstream Guards was 
held in London on October 7th. The account 
I give of this is taken from the " Morning 
Post " of two days after. 

" A service in memory of the officers, war- 
rant officers, non-commissioned officers, and 
men of the Coldstream Regiment of Foot 
Guards who fell during the month of Sept- 
ember in the Battle of the Somme was held 
on Saturday afternoon at Holy Trinity 
Church, Sloane Street. 

" The following are the officers who o-ave 
their lives on the field." Then follow the 
names of twenty-five officers, Dillwyn's 
amongst them. 

" Admission to the church was by ticket, 
and the mourners and others were met at the 
entrance by the officers of the regiment, who 
directed them to seats reserved for them. 
The band of the regiment, stationed on a 
platform in the south aisle, played a selection 
of elegiac music during the seating. The full 
choral service, after the playing of Chopin's 
Marche Funebre, commenced with the open- 
ing sentence of the Order for the Burial of 
the Dead, ' I am the Resurrection and the 



106 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

Life,' following which was sung the Psalm, 
1 God is our Hope and Strength.' Pre- 
ceding the reading of the Lesson from 
i Corinthians xv, the hymn ' On the Resur- 
rection Morning,' was given, and afterwards 
the impressive hymn ' Sleep On, Beloved, 
Sleep, and Take Thy Rest.' The following 
special prayer was then recited : ' Let us 
commend to the mercy of God the Officers, 
Warrant Officers, Non-commissioned Officers 
and Men of the Coldstream Guards, who 
have laid down their lives for their King and 
Country. May they have eternal peace, and 
let perpetual light shine upon them.' After 
other supplications and hymns, the con- 
gregation joined in the hymn • For all the 
Saints who from their labours rest,' and 
then the following special prayer for the 
mourners present was given : ' O merciful 
God and Heavenly Father, our only help in 
time of need, look with pity on all those 
whom war makes desolate and broken- 
hearted. Endue them with patience and 
fortitude, lift up Thy countenance upon them 
and give them peace, through jesus Christ 
our Lord.' The Funeral March from ' Saul ' 
and the National Anthem concluded the 
musical part of the service, at the end of 



MEMORIAL SERVICE 107 

which 'The Last Post' was sounded by the 
regimental buglers stationed in the western 
gallery." 

Naturally the service was very solemn to 
us, but the reverence of the assembly which 
filled the church, one of the largest in London, 
was wonderful. And it seemed to me, when 
"The Last Post" was sounded, that all 
mentally visualized the twenty-five fallen 
officers with their men marching through 
wide-open gates into the Eternal City, and 
we felt that, in such company our own hero 
could not be lonely. 

I can not close this part of my record with- 
out quoting a few of the many letters received 
from English civilians with some of whom we 
had only the most casual acquaintance. For 
warm-hearted sympathy for us and deep ap- 
preciation of Dillwyn's willing and very brave 
sacrifice to help them, they are quite remark- 
able. They altogether disprove the usual 
American idea of English aloofness and 
reserve. 



108 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

From a Friend, 

September 22nd, 19 16. 

" I must write you a line to-day as my 
heart is aching for you in your sorrow. I 
couldn't help remembering when I read the 
account of that terrible and glorious battle 
in this morning's paper, of Dill saying one 
evening at dinner, ' I want to be in a charge 
with the Coldstream — I dare say I shouldn't 
come through it alive, but I don't mind that 
if I've ever charged with them.' One can't help 
feeling that there 's no way he would sooner 
have died than in this wonderful Charge. One 
can picture him leading his men and proving 
to them that in sport and battle their American 
brother is as gallant and brave as any they 
could wish for. We English are so proud 
of what he has done and that he was ready 
to sacrifice himself for what he thought was 
right, and there are many people knowing 
you and him, who will say, ' America gave of 
her best and sacrificed her best. In the great 
war she was not behindhand.' 

" All this is poor comfort, isn't it, when 
what one wants is gone? But think how 
gloriously happy it is for him. He has fought 
his fight and won splendidly. It makes your 



ENGLISH LETTERS 109 

fight the harder to feel he is not here, but it 
must make you proud to think how you 
helped him to win through and make the 
end a victory." 

Dillwyn's remark, quoted in the last letter, 
coincides with what his friend Hamilton 
Hadden writes about him: "There is one 
comforting thought and that is that I am 
sure he died as he would wish to die. On 
the wall of the breakfast-room at the Club at 
Cambridge there is a picture of a Cavalry 
Charge with an officer, with sword upraised, 
leading his men on gallantly. Dill and I 
would often get seats at dinner opposite 
this picture; would discuss the splendid 
sensations such a man must have under the 
circumstances, and we would always aoree 
that if we might choose the kind of death we 
would have, we should choose such an ending. 

It seems an unbelievable thought that he 
has been killed because he made up such 
a large part of the lives of his friends that 
life without him in it will be a changed thing 
for us." 



no DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

From K. E. R. 

Pride's Crossing, 

October 4th, 19 16. 

" There is little for me to say excepting 
that your great loss is a great glory too. To 
be an American who gives, not because it is 
duty, but as a free gift a precious son who is 
a great hero in so glorious a company must 
make one very proud. 

"As an Englishwoman I thank you and 
yours, and as your friend I, who am suffering 
many things because it is my proud duty 
to do so, send you a very understanding 
sympathy." 

From Prof. F. C. de Sumichrast. 

43, Eaton Rise, W. 

September 25///, 191 6. 

''Although a complete stranger to you I 
cannot refrain from a most inadequate ex- 
pression of my profound sympathy with you 
in the glorious death of your son on the battle- 
field. 

" I have a personal interest in his splendid 
military career — none the less splendid be- 
cause of his own modesty. As an English- 



ENGLISH LETTERS in 

man I cannot say how deep is my gratitude 
to him and to you for his instant resolve to 
aid us and our Allies : as an officer — though 
72 years of age— in our National Reserve 
I am thrilled by his record : as Professor in 
Harvard for twenty-five years my heart 
goes out to him and to you, for I loved our 
Harvard boys : loved them because I knew 
them well and, I think I may say, under- 
stood them. 

'Very, very dear to me are the days I 
spent in your land and among your people. 
More dear my memories of Harvard and 
Harvard men. 

" I plead this as my excuse for trespassing 
upon your grief, which, believe me, I share, 
as I share, too, the pride you must feel, in 
your son who saw at once that in the 
greatest battle for Freedom yet fought on 
earth, his place was on the side of Freedom. 
To the highest ideals of your great nation, 
and of our own, he has given his life, leaving 
us English his glad and proud debtors— his 
thankful, his grateful debtors. 

"Again I pray you to forgive my intrusion 
and to believe that you have my truest sym- 
pathy and deep respect." 



ii2 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

From Rev. Geo. F. Carr, D.D. 

Amberley Vicarage, Sussex, 

Septei7iber 23rd, 19 16. 

" May God comfort you and Mrs. Starr in 
your sore trial. It is no meaningless phrase for 
us to say we sympathise with you in your sor- 
row. For many months we have been sharers 
of your anxiety. It may be God's will that 
we also share your grief. Still, even as you 
mourn, you must be proud to have a son who 
died so nobly fighting not for his country but 
what must be accounted far higher, for the 
cause of Humanity and on the side of God. 
If we regard our own countrymen as heroes 
he is far more. America may be proud to rear 
such men." 

The Rev. Doctor Carr also writes in the 
Amberley Parish Magazine for October: 

"And we are sure everyone who knows 
them will unite in sympathy with Dr. and 
Mrs. Starr in the great bereavement they 
have sustained in the loss of their brave and 
noble son, who fell at the head of his men 
in the splendid charge of the Coldstream 
Guards. 

"If we feel gratitude to our own country- 



ENGLISH LETTERS 115 

men, and honour them, we owe double honour 
to men like Lt. Starr. He, as an American 
citizen, could have stood out of this war. His 
country and people were in no danger, but he 
saw this country and her Allies fighting, as 
he believed, for the cause of right, and he 
was willing to give his life for high principles 
and lofty ideals. 

"He served through the terrible campaign 
in the Dardanelles, and at the close mieht 
have retired with great honour, but the fight 
still went on, and he again threw himself into 
the fray. 

" England must never forget such men as 
Dillwyn Starr, and America must be proud 
of sons of such heroic character." 



From J. H. Seavorns, Esq., 

President of Harvard Club of London. 

25 Grosvenor Road, Westminster, 

Sept. 29///, 1916. 

" At a recent meeting of the Committee of 
the Harvard Club of London I was requested 
to convey to you and Mrs. Starr their deep 
sympathy in the death of your gallant son in 
France. 

1 



ii 4 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

" Our admiration is great for all the brave 
men who sacrifice their lives in a noble cause. 
It is particularly so in the rare case of a man 
who makes the sacrifice with no ties of country 
to compel it. Those of us in the Club who 
are British are deeply touched and grateful 
that a young American should come to our 
aid, support our cause and give his life among 
our men. 

" For myself, may I say that having lost 
my only son in action in France, I can the 
more deeply appreciate the loss you and 
Mrs. Starr have suffered, but you will think with 
me that however much we may have craved 
distinction for our sons, nothing could exceed 
the glorious distinction they have won by 
their early and gallant deaths." 

This English testimony may be concluded 
by quoting a letter from Geoffrey G. Butler, 
the Librarian of Cambridge University, pub- 
lished in the "Philadelphia Ledger" of Octo- 
ber 26th, 191 6. Doctor Butler writes of 
Dillwyn: 

" It was good of the boy to join our army, 
and over here, although we are a nation 
which does not often express its feeling, I 
think it was an event which was taken much 



ENGLISH LETTERS 115 

to heart. Of course, it is cases like this 
which forge a tie between the two countries, 
and one which is bound to over-shadow any- 
little temporary friction. He had a most in- 
teresting career; was in Gallipoli, in the 
Armoured Car Division, and then obtained 
a commission in the Coldstream Guards, 
perhaps the finest regiment in the British 
Army. 

" Throughout the whole war nothing has 
equalled the performance of the Guards 
Regiments. There is not a soldier on the 
British front, whatever his nationality — Eng- 
lishman, Scotsman, Australian, or Canadian 
— who would not unhesitatingly and ungrudg- 
ingly give the palm to the Regiments of the 
Guards. They have, as you know, an extra- 
ordinary tradition, and draw from all that is 
finest in the country for their officers and 
men, so that not only their physique, which 
is very fine, but their morale is something 
quite out of the ordinary. 

" In their drill they have a precision which 
other regiments often lack. You can imagine 
it if you think of the drill at West Point on 
some grand occasion made a little less cere- 
monial and adapted for service needs. The 
discipline, alike for officers and men, is of an 



u6 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

iron character, and I am told that even when 
they are in reserve, just behind the front, 
they preserve the same ceremonial in reliev- 
ing the guard that one can see any day in 
front of Buckingham Palace. A young friend 
of mine, describing a Guards regiment going 
into action, told me that though it was under 
a sfallinof fire it was done with all the method 
of the parade ground, the ranks closing up 
automatically without orders. 

"It is a pleasant thought that this fine 
young Philadelphian was felt to have won his 
spurs worthily by such a regiment. I have 
heard that the regiment liked him, and that 
they recognized in him a specimen of the 
finest type that America produces, and felt 
the more warmly disposed toward his fellow- 
countrymen in that he quite unnecessarily 
chose, in this horrible show, to adopt such a 
course." 



VII 

NOTHING would have appealed more 
to Dillwyn than the demonstrations of 
affection and appreciation that have been and 
are being made by his hosts of friends in 
America. His classes at Groton and at Har- 
vard, the members of the Porcellian Club, and 
very many others, joining in doing him honour. 
They have shown their pride in his courage, 
and their deep sympathy with his adopted 
cause, and have laid a debt of lasting grati- 
tude upon his Mother and myself.* 

Many accounts have reached us from those 
who were there of the beautiful Memorial 
Service for him in New York. This service 
to us was doubly significant and gratifying, in 
that it was solely and with no family prompt- 

* While the proof is being read a letter has arrived 
from Robert H. Hallowell, which says : " At the annual 
meeting, the Porcellian Club voted to send an ambulance 
to France in memory of Dillwyn. I was made treasurer 
of the fund, and I am sure you will be interested to 
know that one ambulance has been sent out, and I 
fully expect within a few days to have enough money to 
send a second. How we all loved him ! There was many 
a moist eye when we took the vote at the meeting." 

117 



n8 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

ings, gotten up by Dillwyn's own loyal friends, 
and perfected, I am led to believe, by the de- 
voted, sympathetic leadership of Sidney Fish. 
Towards him and towards each one of those 
who participated we feel a profound sense of 
appreciation which must remain unmeasured 
by mere words. 

The New York " Sun " of October 4th 
says of this service : 

Service for Lieutenant Starr 

Held in Trinity Church, with British Consul' 
General present 

"Memorial Services were held in Trinity 
Church late yesterday afternoon for Lt. Dill- 
wyn Parrish Starr, son of Dr. Louis Starr, of 
Philadelphia, who was killed in action in 
France on September 15th while serving with 
the Coldstream Guards. Many hundred friends 
and relatives of Lt. Starr attended the serv- 
ices. Clive Bayley, British Consul-General, 
with members of his office, were present. 

"The Rev. Joseph P. McComas, senior 
curate of Trinity, conducted the services. 
He was assisted by the Rev. Sherrard Bill- 
ings, of Groton School. The chancel rail was 



MEMORIAL SERVICE, N.Y. 119 

banked with flowers, sent by his personal 
friends and from his School and College and 
Clubs, and a British Jack and two American 
flags were draped in their midst. 

" Upon the conclusion of the services the 
floral pieces were placed on the graves in 
Trinity Churchyard, especially on those of 
the Soldiers of the Revolution. One of the 
largest pieces was put on the grave of Lord 
Sterling, who fought with Washington. Other 
graves decorated were those of Capt. James 
Lawrence, Gen. Clarkson, Gen. de Peyster, 
Alexander Hamilton, and Robert Fulton." 

Of this service the Rev. Sherrard Billings 
writes : 

" My heart aches for you and Dill's Father. 
You knew of course the danger, but that did 
not make it less hard to lose him. I believe 
that God Himself is suffering with you in 
your distress. God does not want war and 
pain and premature death to go on in this 
world, and some day there will be no such 
thine. But so lone as there is need for life to 
be risked in a high cause, it is gallant young 
men like Dill who will die. And I am sure 
that God approves of their motives and there 
will be no handicap for them in the other 



i2o DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

world just because they have missed the 
discipline of long life in this. 

" The Memorial Service at Trinity in 
New York at which Sidney Fish asked me 
to officiate was thrilling, with the beautiful 
choir, the stirring organ recital of ' God Save 
the Kino-,' the American and English flag's 
draped together, the wonderful flowers, and 
the great crowd of people Many Britishers 
were there, glad of a chance to pay their 
tribute to a gallant American who had died 
in their cause. It was a great privilege to 
officiate at that service, a privilege I shall 
never forget. And on Sunday in my sermon 
in the chapel I spoke to the boys of the 
Groton man who had just died. Dill will 
always be remembered here. It will be a 
satisfaction to see his name cut into the stone 
of the Chapel wall. 

" I know how hard it is for you and his 
Father. But as time goes on your beautiful 
memory of Dill will be an increasing comfort 
to you, and some day you will meet your boy 
again. And when you meet him, you will 
find him, I suspect, a leader still in some 
high cause. I have a feeling that Dill will 
thrive peculiarly in the atmosphere of the 
other world." 



GROTON LETTERS 121 

The next letters are also from Groton 
School. These and all that follow will be as 
acceptable to the British as theirs are to 
Dillwyn's own countrymen, since they express 
sympathy for the ideals of the allies — a sym- 
pathy which they are very eager for here and 
have been justly disappointed in not receiving 
officially. This withholding will always be 
our shame. It was so little to expect, but 
meant so much to those who are fio-htinQf and 
was all they wanted from us.* 

* When this was written I, with other Americans in 
England, plainly seeing the trend of events and worn out 
by disappointed expectations, had almost given up hoping 
for belligerent action on the part of our Government. 
While the book is still in press, diplomatic relations with 
Germany have been broken off, and further, after more 
procrastination, a state of war has been declared. At 
last we are gladdened by the sight of our flag exposed 
in honour and can once again hold up our heads with 
pride in our country. Not that the British have made 
our stay uncomfortable. They are far too generous and 
hospitable for that, and far too appreciative of any per- 
sonal sympathy and assistance. We were humiliated 
because — The great principles now being advanced in 
justification of the United States participating in the war 
were as true and as existent on August 4th 19 14 as they 
are to-day. And overt acts, and German brutality, false- 
hood and trickery came quickly and often after this 
date. But still we strove for peace, until our own ports 
were virtually blockaded and the Germans, as is their 
habit of giving away the belongings of others, offered 



122 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

From Rev. Endicott Peabody, D.D. 

" I have thought often of you and Mrs. 
Starr since the sad news of Dill's death came 
to us. 

" We had prayers for you in the school- 
room in which Dill sat as a boy, on the 
evening that his death was reported, and the 
boys were touched by the thought that they 
were praying for the Parents of one of their 
own number (for we count the graduates 
always a part of us) who had laid down his 
life in a o-reat cause. This thought — that 
Dill was fighting a oreat battle for freedom 
and righteousness in the world — must bring 
comfort to your sad hearts. By and by I 
trust there will come joy as well ; but just 

some of our own States to Mexico and threatened us 
with war with Japan. One thanks God that at last we have 
" come in," but wishes our coming had been for a less 
selfish motive and had not been so late. 

I have enough faith in my fellow countrymen to think 
that a Lincoln could have crystalized and led American 
sentiment after the outrage of Belgium, or after the bar- 
barous sinking of the " Lusitania." I believe, that at the 
beginning, Hun madness and piracy could have been 
curbed, and the war materially shortened, had a true 
Leader spoken in clear terms and followed words by 
deeds. May it not be over late to atone, by forceful 
action, for the shame of our delay ! 



GROTON LETTERS 123 

now I can understand the feeling of pain 
being uppermost. 

" I remember Dill with much affection 
during his Groton days. He was ' all boy ' 
then. Simple and straightforward and afraid 
of nothing. I fancy he kept these boyish 
qualities to the end. He must have been a 
gallant soldier and a delightful member of 
the regimental staff. Barclay Parsons, who 
dined with him on one of Dill's last nights in 
London, tells me that Dill had a feeling that 
he might fall in the campaign. But he was 
undismayed by that. 

"My heart goes out to you both in your 
distress, my dear friends. May God send 
you strength to endure, and the assurance of 
his love for you and for the boy." 



From Wm. Amory Gardner, Esq. 

Sunset Hill House, N.H. 

" I have just heard of Dillwyn's death 
and I want to write a word of sympathy. I 
have thought many times in the past months 
of your anxiety. Now I can only offer you 
sympathy in your sorrow. But it has been a 
gallant tale, and as time goes on you must 



i2 4 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

let your pride in this get the upper hand of 
the sorrow. I am here with the Jack Chap- 
man's. Their boy Victor you know was killed 
in June at Verdun. He was my godson and 
I have been with his parents a good deal 
this summer. It helps me a little to under- 
stand what all this is to you, and it is quite 
useless to write. But I think it helps a little 
to know that people care, and I did care a 
lot for Dill. And we are doing so little for 
this great cause, that it makes me proud 
when anyone who belongs to one in any way 
is saving all! " 

From Irving C. Gladwin, Esq. 

" You have no idea how much Dill has 
been talked about here — among boys who 
have never seen him. As you probably know, 
Mr. Billinos conducted the Memorial Service 
in New York. He says the church was packed, 
many Englishmen with their families being 
present. 

" I shall never forget my first visit to Eton 
and the lump in my throat when I saw in the 
passage-ways the photographs and inscrip- 
tions of the Eton boys who had met their 
death in heroic action. I hoped then to see 



GROTON LETTERS 125 

the halls of Groton with such photographs, 
as an incentive among our boys to heroic 
endeavour. 

"When George Borup died I asked his 
father for a photograph of him to begin 
such a collection. He furnished us with one 
and we sent it to Peary, who wrote under- 
neath a fine inscription signed with his 
name. 

" This is the first and only one we have. 
I hope very much that you can give us one 
of Dill for the second. It would be nice if 
we could have framed with it that splendid 
letter to you from his Colonel, Reginald 
Crawford. Can you not ask him to make a 
copy of it for us ? 

" I am going to write Mrs. Prince to do 
the same thing with regard to Norman, and 
hope to get Henry Farnsworth's and one of 
Bertie Randolph. 

" The letters you sent about Dill I have 
read to several groups of boys. When I had 
not time to finish, they begged to come to my 
room and have me read them all. Thank you 
so much for giving us all the opportunity of 
reading them. Every one seems to have sized 
up Dill at once, and to have seen his sterling 
qualities." 



126 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

I will close the Groton School letters with 
one more. 

From F. P. 

" We believe — do we not — that it is ' well 
with the child ' when we still have our 
precious children with us. We are content 
if they are well and happy. But surely that 
vital, vigorous Dill is stronger and gladder 
than he ever was. He would tell you so if 
he could. I know you are a soldier's mother, 
which must mean that you share a soldier's 
heart, and I know it means that God's love 
and tenderness are with you. You may be 
sure that all of us who ever knew him in his 
little boyhood and young manhood feel near 
him and near you and his father in these 
sorrowful days, which still should have a 
strong note of victory in them for the life 
laid down willingly and gallantly in so great 
a cause. 



VIII 

IN memory of him and in gratefulness to 
them, I am tempted to insert copies of 
every one of the hundreds of letters and cables 
received from Dillwyn's many friends in 
America. To quote only a few, as space 
permits, would be invidious. To discriminate 
would be impossible. But we shall always 
treasure them for the love they express for 
him, and they will comfort us so long as 
memory endures. 

The next letter is typical of the spirit of 
them all: 

From Sidney W. Fish. 

63 Wall Street, New York, 

September 22nd, 1916. 

" Your cable was telephoned me from 
Garrisons, and I have telephoned Morgan 
and Hollins and many others whom Dill 
would want to know first, though it was like 
putting knives into them to give them news 
like this. Dill's death is going to cause more 
sorrow here among all his friends, than could 
the death of any half-dozen other men. I'm 

127 



i2S DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

broken-hearted. I always thought that Dill's 
luck would somehow pull him through. I 
didn't need your cable to know that he died 
gallantly, as he was always living gallantly 
and could die no other way, but I've been so 
looking forward to seeing him back here, and 
to the things we would do together, that I feel 
a piece of me buried over there with him. Or 
will there be a funeral here ? There will be 
so many of us who would like to feel that we 
had been there. 

And Langdon P. Marvin, Secretary of the 
Harvard Club of New York, writes: 

Harvard Club of New York City, 

November 2gt/i, 1916. 

" I am very much touched at the receipt 
of your letter and of the very graceful ac- 
knowledgment from Dr. Starr and yourself 
of the flowers sent to the Memorial Service 
in memory of your son by the members of 
the Harvard Club. We were there in large 
numbers, and I have never seen a more 
earnest, sorrowing, but proud assemblage of 
mourners. We are all so proud of Dill's 
record and of his splendid spirit. His funeral 
services were a fitting tribute to the memory 
of a brave and gallant soldier and man. 



AMERICAN LETTERS 129 

" I have placed your acknowledgment on 
the bulletin board of the Harvard Club, 
where it will be read with real appreciation 
by the members. 

" You have the deepest sympathy both of 
the Harvard Club and of myself personally." 

From Robert Grant, Junr., Esq., 

80 Lombard Street, 
London, 

September 27/^, 1916. 

" The news of Dill's death has made me 
feel so badly that I want to extend you what 
sympathy I can in your sad bereavement. 

" Dill's name has been a household word 
to me and my brothers ever since we were at 
college together. He was a great friend of 
my brother " Pat's." They roomed together 
and played in the football team together. 
During their college years and their summers 
I got to know him well and the more I saw 
of him the more that attraction of his in- 
fluenced me. He could not know how much 
pleasure he caused to everyone who knew 
him, but I am sure you knew it yourself, and 
that it will be a very happy memory for you 
to have always. 

" In college and out everyone of every class 

K 



i 3 o DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

loved him. I do not know anyone who was 
quite the same. He could not have died a 
finer death. This is very small consolation 
to his friends and to you and to his Father. 
But I shall remember him all my life and am 
very proud to have had a friend like him." 

A soldier's mother writes of him: 

Oxford, 

September 24///, 191 6. 

" I hope you won't think it an intrusion if I 
send you a message of deepest sympathy, for 
it comes straight from my heart. Through 
my own son Caspar,* I met your son many 
times, and as you may imagine fell a captive 
to his charm. As an American I feel I have 
a right to be proud of him, for surely no man 
has ever offered his life more freely for a 
principle, and all so simply. 

" The only time he spoke to me of what he 
had done, or might do, he said, ' No man 
with red blood having seen what this show is 
could help fighting for the Allies,' and with 
supreme lack of criticism of neutral Americans, 
simply added : ' They have not seen the show, 

* Caspar Burton, Lieut., King's Own (Liverpool) Regt. 
American volunteer. 



AMERICAN LETTERS 131 

and they don't know what Germans are 
like.' 

"You are indeed in the ' vale of misery,' 
but how proud you and his father must be 
that he as a man has fought for what we 
wish America as a nation was fighting for. 
Surely he must be very dear to our Blessed 
Lord for such a supreme sacrifice." 

From B. S. 

10, Cheyne Court, Chelsea, 

September 23rd. 

" I heard this morning the news of your 
son's death in that marvellous charge of the 
Guards. 

" Although I know you so slightly and 
only once met your son, I have a strong im- 
pulse to write to you my deep sympathy with 
you in your great sorrow, and to tell you how 
such a death stirs one's blood and makes 
one's heart beat with pride to know that our 
country has its heroes too. That your son 
died finely in a fine cause cannot really con- 
sole your personal loss. All such talk seems 
to me worse than useless, but it must be 
something to know that he leaves behind him 
a record of such great gallantry and supreme 
self-sacrifice." 



132 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

The next three letters are from American 
volunteers, the first two wounded and on 
leave. The third is from an Artillery Lieu- 
tenant who, though twice wounded in the 
arm, refused leave because he was needed at 
the front. 



From Charles D. Morgan (R.F.A.) 

Si, Jermyn Street, London, 

September 22nd, 19 16. 

" I cannot tell you what a blow this news 
of Dill's death is to me, and how my heart 
goes out to you. I feel so much and yet I 
can say so little — words are sometimes quite 
inadequate. 

" From what I hear the attack of the Cold- 
stream was magnificent. They all went 
over together — the three Battalions — in one 
straight line, with their officers out in front, 
and didn't stop till they had reached their 
objective 1,000 yards away. Could anything 
be finer? They upheld the very best tradi- 
tions of their wonderful past and Dill helped 
to do it. You may be sure he was in the very 
forefront and must have died a splendid ex- 
ample to his men." 



AMERICAN LETTERS 



From A. Grafton Chapman (R.F.A.) 

Red Barracks, Weymouth, 

Sept. 23rd. 

"Stuart Montgomery has just told me of 
Dill's glorious death. It is terribly hard I 
know, but it has to be sometimes, when one 
is fighting for the right ideas. All I can say 
is that I am, I hope, going out again before 
so very long and I assure you that when I do, 
Dill will be always in my thoughts and God 
help the Hun that I get my hands on. You 
can't imagine how we all love Dill, and I can- 
not tell you what his loss means to me." 

From John H. MacVeagh (R.F.A.) 

Somewhere in France, 

October ist. 

" Your letter telling me the very sad news 
has just arrived. I can't tell you how 
frightfully sorry I am for I got to regard Dill 
as one of my very best friends. I wish I 
might be with you now. 

" The night of the big attack I had been 
F.O.O. ; I was returning, and as the Huns 
still held out in front of the trench had to 



134 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 

make a detour, and landed in an old Boche 
trench that had been captured by the Guards 
about an hour or so before. As there were 
two of us, we thought it only decent to take 
back somebody with us, for it was still too 
warm for any stretcher-bearers. We hunted 
up a stretcher and with the aid of a wandering 
Boche whom we came across got our man 
safely back. Oh! how I wish that our wounded 
Guardsman might have been Dill. As soon 
as I heard more I asked permission to go 
and look up the Guards, but as I had been 
detailed to take two guns up into a forward 
position in the small hours of the morn- 
ing, and it was already evening, my C.O. 
would not let me off.* 

" Thank you for the way you let Mother 
know that I had been reported wounded. I 
was offered a few days' leave but refused it. 
If you go home, I shall miss you very much 
for you have been more than kind to me, and 
should I pull through I want to pay my first 
visit to you. If not, may I pass out half 
as worthily and in just a little of the blaze 
of glory that he did." 

* MacVeagh has since received the Croix de Guerre 
for gallant reconnoitering service. 



AMERICAN LETTERS 135 

In addition to these letters I have one 
from Capt. Oliver Filley, R.F.C., who flew 
from his Aerodrome in France, and with 
much sympathetic interest visited the Bat- 
talion — or what was left of it — to question 
his men regarding Dillwyn. I have already 
quoted the details he acquired. 

Under the heading " Flaming American 
Spirits Extinguished in the War," Eliot 
Norton and William P. Clyde, jr., wrote to 
the Philadelphia "Public Ledger" of Oct- 
ober 28th, 19 16: 

"Johnny Poe of Princeton was the first 
American football player to fall in Europe, 
and now Dillwyn Starr, Harvard's famous 
quarterback for four years, has met his 
death. 

" Strange that these two famous American 
football players should die, one of them hold- 
ing a commission in the Black Watch, and 
the other in the Coldstream Guards. 

' The wildest guesser of their fortunes 
present at their birth would never have 
dreamed of that. 

" Dillwyn Parrish Starr's death will bring 
sorrow to his parents and regret to all who 
knew him. He was a singularly vivid person, 



i%6 DILLWYN PARRISH STARR 



intensely happy in action, taking with him 
wherever he went high spirits, light and 
motion — three lovely things. A dull gray 
life was not for him. When under fire for 
the first time he turned to his companion 
with an ea^er ' Isn't it great?' 

"With passion and persistence he pursued 
Romance." 

Then follows a summary of his war work, 
and: 

" Thus for two glorious years he had ob- 
tained all that his romance-loving nature 
could demand. He experienced all the great 
adventures of war and finally a month ago 
met the greatest of them all — death in 
battle. 

" So he lived and died in a manner fully 
suitable to his nature. Such a one can be 
truly said to be a happy man. But a bright 
and flaming spirit has been extinguished and 
to those who knew him the world has grown 
darker." 



IX 



SO ends this war story. The story of an 
American, who was true to the repub- 
lican ideals of his own country, while he felt 
the call of his English and French ancestry, 
and nobly answered. A soldier, generous, 
and ignorant of fear. A friend, gentle, loyal, 
and vividly alive. A son, who was full of 
affectionate and protective consideration; 
whose whole life, from early boyhood, teemed 
with interest, and whose gallant passing fills 
us with pride. 

The following lines from " Translations," 
Edited by S. C, Oxford, might almost have 
been written of him : 

"Between our trenches and the enemy 
his body lies. We cannot rescue it, but 
neither can the enemy molest it. He sleeps 
undisturbed by the shells that hurtle over 
him, and well content, for he fell in the 
accomplishment of the task in which he 
excelled, and in the last of his many peril- 
ous hours it was joy he found and not 
fear." 

L 




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